Ukraine officials are furious after being refused permission to train at Wembley ahead of their friendly against England.

The visitors had planned a final workout on the hallowed turf on Tuesday evening - as is customary - but Wembley officials refused to let them train on the pitch, which has been badly cut up by heavy rain and four matches in as many days.

The Ukrainians were redirected to Arsenal's north London training ground, but they were far from happy. A spokesman for the team said: 'This is an insult. We wanted to train at Wembley in order to test the pitch and get to know the conditions, like any visiting side would. But we were not allowed to.

'We were not happy about it. Fortunately, we were able to go to Arsenal's training ground - Oleg Luzhny's backyard. But we would have preferred to have trained at Wembley.

'We were asked if we wanted to go there just to look around but we would only have done that if we could have trained there too. If the England players had come over to our country and not been able to train at the stadium before a game they would not have been happy either.'

Wembley spokesman Martin Corrie said: 'We understand the Ukrainians' frustration at not being able to train at Wembley and are most grateful for their co-operation.'

He said the pitch was perfectly playable, but the stadium management wanted to avoid further deterioration.

The change of venue was not the only problem for Ukraine. Coach Valery Lobanovsky has been advised not to travel on medical grounds and will pick the team by telephone.

Likely to be included in the line-up is Sergei Rebrov, Tottenham's new £11million signing, who said: 'This is a big game for me because I am coming to play in this country and this is my home now.

'I have dreamed all my life of playing in England. We have a strong side but so have England.'