London - England's inspirational striker is on crutches less than three weeks before the World Cup soccer tournament begins and may or may not play a match.

The England manager, for whom the World Cup will be the last job before he steps down, has called up a 17-year-old he hasn't even seen play.

Predicting England's footballing fortunes is never easy, but a lot of money will ride on those predictions.

British bookmakers are preparing for up to 1bn pounds(US$2bn)in bets on the June 9 to July 9 World Cup in Germany, with wagers ranging from whose 'Golden Boot' will score most goals in the tournament, to how many corner kicks in a game, and even what haircut England captain David Beckham will sport.

Betting in Britain has always been popular, but the 2001 abolition of tax on the gambler and the growth of online betting has seen an increase in annual turnover from 7bn pounds(US$14bn) in 2000 to about 50bn pounds(US$100bn)today, analysts say.

And the soccer World Cup is the highlight.

Betting trends

Although most of the betting in Britain still takes place in gambling shops along the high street, more and more people are opting to bet via the Internet, over the telephone or through interactive television.

Graham Sharpe, media spokesman for the William Hill bookmakers, said betting had also become more popular in recent years due to the variety of events people could bet on.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney's broken foot is a major doubt hanging over England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's team, and the uncertainty has been reflected in the number of bets placed in recent weeks.

The 20-year-old is odds-on to miss the tournament, according to William Hill.

Competitive odds

Vaughan Williams says betting is now an integral part of the leisure experience in Britain, with betters making more money than ever before due to the removal of tax and the competitive odds set by rival bookmakers.

Ladbrokes, another British bookmaker, says it handles more than a million bets a day in its shops and has two million registered online customers in over 200 countries who are offered bets in 18 currencies.

On a larger scale, soccer's world governing body Fifa has been forced to set up a new company to detect suspect betting patterns in response to a betting scandal that broke in Germany last year.

But Vaughan Williams said the game was now more transparent than ever before.

"Everything you do now is monitored," he said. "They know where you bet, how much you bet. Before, when it was just in a shop, it could never be controlled.