When England limped to Japan for the World Cup two years ago, Sven-Goran Eriksson didn't have Steven Gerrard, two more injured players were left at home and David Beckham hadn't fully recovered from a foot problem.
England still made it to the quarterfinal, losing 2-1 to the eventual winner, Brazil.
Now Gerrard's in the team and Beckham says he has fully recovered from an ankle problem. Maybe this is England's chance to win the European Championship for the first time.
"It's a far cry from the last World Cup, where we had a lot of injuries," England striker Michael Owen said. "We've got a clean bill of health, with the exception of John [Terry] and the preparations have gone really well."
Terry, who suffered a hamstring injury in last week's 1-1 tie with Japan, is Eriksson's only injury problem as he prepares his team for Sunday's confrontation with defending champion France in Lisbon.
That game is one day after host Portugal kicks off the championship against Greece in Porto and Group A rivals Spain meets Russia in Faro.
Terry has had a standout season as Chelsea finished runner up to Arsenal in the Premier League and reached the Champions League semifinal. With Rio Ferdinand suspended for eight months for failing to take a drugs test, he was seen as the ideal replacement. Instead Liverpool's Jamie Carragher or Tottenham's Ledley King are likely to be given the job of keeping Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet quiet at the Stadium of Light.
England's sometimes fragile defense will have to face a star-studded and familiar French lineup.
Henry, Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira all play for the Arsenal team that won the Premier League title without losing a game while another Gunner, Sylvain Wiltord, could be on the bench.
Chelsea's Claude Makelele, Marcel Desailly and William Gallas also could face Eriksson's men with Manchester United's Louis Saha and Mikael Silvestre involved at some time.
"The manager [Sven-Goran Eriksson] was talking today that 10 of France's players, present or past, were teammates of our own players," Owen said.
"We've played against a lot of them, certainly I have scored against all of them.
"I'm not scared of them in any way. We will go into the game thinking we're on their level. We play against them every week."
Two days after France-England comes Germany-Netherlands with Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf certain to miss the game.
The AC Milan player suffered a hamstring injury when the Dutch lost 1-0 at home to Ireland and coach Dick Advocaat has to face traditional rival Germany without one of his most influential players.
"Coach Dick Advocaat will not be able to count on the AC Milan player for the first game against Germany. But he is fit enough to travel to Portugal," a statement from the Dutch federation said.
Happily for Advocaat, the Germans also come off a home loss, 2-0 to Hungary in Kaiserslautern on Saturday.
Rudi Voeller's team, a record three-time winner of the title, also has to take on another former champion in the toughest group when it meets the Czech Republic, which won the title in 1976 as Czechoslovakia before the country split in two in 1993.
With the start of the championship just three days away, speculation still abounds about who is going where after it finishes.
After the surprise announcement last week that France coach Jacques Santini had decided to move to England's Tottenham Hotspur, reports in Spain suggested that German star Michael Ballack was on his way to Barcelona.
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