It is not good news for England at all - Sven Goran Eriksson had always made it clear that he was impressed by Dyer. The young versatile midfielder is likely to be ruled out of training for around four weeks, by which time England will be mid way through the group stages of the tournament. It would therefore be a huge gamble for Eriksson to take him.
Eriksson said this morning: "I feel very sorry for Dyer - he has been extremely unlucky. What happened was not a muscle problem but a bad tackle and that happens in football. He is absolutely destroyed. It's a knee ligament problem, and even if everything goes 100% well it can take at least four weeks to recover."
As a result of Dyer's injury, Liverpool's Danny Murphy has been called up to the England squad, and West Ham's Trevor Sinclair has been placed on standby. It is quite possible however, that Trevor will indeed be called up to the squad, with both Nicky Butt and Steven Gerrard both struggling to regain full fitness for the finals.
The loss of Gerrard would be a huge blow for England, as Sven acknowledges: "Steven Gerrard is not coming with us tomorrow. So that means that Beckham has some problems, Butt some problems, Dyer almost for sure out, and Gerrard some problems.
"But we will have to wait on Steven, but I spoke to doctors today and they were not optimistic at all. This Sunday has not started well at all."
He certainly has a point, although this Sunday has started well for a certain Trevor Sinclair. It is not the circumstances that he would have liked to have come into the squad, but if his services are eventually called upon, one thing is for sure: he won't let England down.