DION DUBLIN was praised by England coach Glenn Hoddle after his quick thinking prevented goal hero Michael Owen from swallowing his tongue in the 1-0 success over Morocco in Casablanca tonight. Owen, who came on for the injured Ian Wright, was knocked unconscious after a blow to the head in a challenge with Moroccan keeper Driss Benzekri. But Dublin was on the scene in an instant and turned the Liverpool player onto his side to reduce the possibility of him swallowing his tongue. Hoddle said: Owen took a hell of a blow to the jaw and was out cold for some time. I was very concerned. That's why I was on the pitch. But Dion's reaction in turning him on his side was first class. When you're totally out cold, there is the danger that you can swallow your tongue and that was the big concern. Thankfully he came around and the first thing he actually said to me was, ‘Please don't take me off. I want to carry on.' I gave him a couple of minutes to get back together and thankfully he was OK. There has been a bit of experience down the years of that sort of thing happening to players. These days I think players and physios talk about such things and they're told when someone is knocked out cold to get them on their side as soon as possible. Hoddle was rather incredibly - delighted with England's overall performance and said: It was a very good exercise for us. We said that in the first 30 minutes we couldn't expect to get the ball and pass it around like we did in the final part of the game. We knew it was going to be a case where they would initially raise their game given the backing of the crowd. But we weathered the storm and started to assert ourselves before the interval, which came without them creating a chance. In the second half I felt that we could turn the crowd against them and get them on our side and that's exactly what happened. Paul Gascoigne came through his first 90 minutes of action after several injury problems and Hoddle was generally pleased with the performance of the Middlesbrough player. Hoddle said: His passing could have been better, but I was pleased that in the last five minutes he almost scored and then in the next moment he was back defending for a corner. His fitness is getting better and better. The main black cloud for England boss Glenn Hoddle was concerning Ian Wright's injury. The Arsenal striker suffered a hamstring injury and had to be substituted during the first half after he had pulled up sharply by the touch line when chasing back to try and tackle a Moroccan player. The 34-year-old clearly looked in distress as he limped out of the action to be replaced by Michael Owen. But Hoddle will await the results of a scan in 48 hours time before giving a clearer verdict on whether Wright's dream of playing in France 98 is over or still alive. Hoddle said: Ian isn't feeling as bad as when he first did the injury. He had to come off, but as things stand he is a bit more optimistic than he originally felt. It's a hamstring injury, but whether it's torn or not, I'm not quite sure at this stage. The evidence of whether that is the case or not will show up in a scan in 48 hours time. As regards how long he'll be out, all I'm going to say now is let's wait and see. I'm not prepared to say whether he's in or out for the World Cup. I'll give him until the weekend. I'm not making my decision on the team until June 1, so I would be silly to say something one way or the other at this stage.

ZIDANE'S GOAL ENOUGH TO SECURE FRENCH VICTORY   FRANCE notched up a 1-0 win over Belgium in the Hassan II tournament at Casabalanca, Morocco tonight, but the World Cup hosts' performance wasn't the kind of emphatic victory they might have hoped for. Juventus' attacking midfielder Zinedine Zidane scored the winner in the 63rd minute, following good work by Lilian Thuram and Stephane Guivarc'h, but both sides lacked energy as they are coming to the end of an arduous World Cup warm-up schedule. After a slow first half the French upped the ante in the second period and showed flashes of the form that has had many pundits tipping them as serious candidates for World Cup victory. With Zidane prompting and Thuram constantly overlapping on the right hand side, they managed to move up a gear to leave a competent Belgian side chasing shadows and it was no surprise when Zidane finally broke the deadlock, poking the ball home after a fluid French move. Manager Aime Jacquet will not have been excessively encouraged by his side's performance, but at least the French showed their manager that they have the quality required to mount a serious World Cup challenge. The host nation, who have had two draws and a defeat in their last three matches, tonight earned their first success since their 1-0 victory over Spain on January 28. And it was Zidane, who now has nine goals for his country, who scored in that win at the inauguration of the Stade de France. France still have work to do in their build-up and they have two warm-up games left. They face Morocco in the Hassan II tournament on Friday and then meet Finland in Helsinki on June 5.

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