Even as the row about Paul Gascoigne's exclusion from England's squad rumbled on, the World Cup lost another of its potential stars yesterday with the omission of Romario from Brazil's final squad of 22.

Unlike Gascoigne, there were no reported tantrums, no fits of pique when the player at the forefront of Brazil's 1994 triumph in Pasadena learned that he was not in the squad from which Mario Zagallo will choose his team to defend the trophy.

"This is very sad, a very big disappointment," Romario said at the Brazilians' base near Paris. He was given a standing ovation as he left the room in tears.

Romario, a key figure in Brazil's triumph at USA 94, had two scans on his damaged right calf at the weekend which revealed it would take up to a month to heal. The original injury occurred during a game of "foot volleyball" on a Rio de Janeiro beach just before the squad left for France last month.

That was almost a fortnight ago and with the injury defying both time and treatment, Zagallo was probably resigned to the fact that he would have to replace him.

Romario has been replaced by Emerson, the 22-year-old Bayer Leverkusen midfielder - not the former Middlesbrough player. There was dismay that Zagallo replaced Romario with an inexperienced defensive midfielder. The coach reasoned it was important to have cover for Dunga and Cesar Sampaio who are carrying injuries.

Zagallo said other midfielders could double as forwards despite his earlier insistence that the likes of Giovanni and Denilson could not play up front.

Ronaldo is now likely to line up alongside Bebeto, Romario's partner four years ago, in the tournament's opening match against Scotland. Brazil's only other out-and-out forward is the volatile Edmundo, who this year set a scoring record in the Brazilian championship with Vasco da Gama.

"I am very sad but we must have even greater determination," said Ronaldo. "Romario is gone, Emerson is coming and the team spirit can't change."

It is a measure, perhaps, of Brazil's abundance of reserve talent that Romario's loss has not been interpreted as a cause of doom and gloom. Contrasted with the hysteria which followed Glenn Hoddle's decision to omit Gascoigne from England's squad, it said much about the relative resources of the two managers.

Twenty-four hours after retiring, deeply disillusioned, from the squad's Spanish base in La Manga, Gascoigne was reserving his innermost thoughts on Hoddle for the tabloid newspaper which has bought his story.

A posse of reporters camped outside the home of his estranged wife, Sheryl, where Gascoigne has taken refuge in his hours of discontent, gleaned nothing as the most controversial English player of his generation ponders his future in the game.

Around him, however, some of the most authoritative voices in the British game were openly querying Hoddle's decision. Among them were Terry Venables, Bryan Robson and the man who oversaw Gascoigne's fledgling career during his time at Newcastle United, Jack Charlton.

"Gazza is Gazza, the George Best of his era and no matter what he does, where he goes, he attracts media attention," said Charlton. "There are times when he infuriates you, but apart from hurting himself, he has done very little damage to other people.

"I love the lad, admire much of what he does on the pitch and while I can appreciate the thoughts which were running through Glen Hoddle's head after the games against Morocco and Belgium, I think I'd have taken him to France. In an increasingly regimented game, it's the flair players who generally make things happen. And Gazza, in all his moods, is one of that breed."

Back in the days when he had charge of the young Gascoigne, Charlton had occasion to reprimand him after the senior professionals at Newcastle complained that while they were out training, the irascible teenager would often cause havoc back in the dressing-room by tying shoelaces together.

One of those who threatened imminent retribution unless Charlton intervened and the youngster desisted was club captain Glen Roedder, then nearing the end of a marathon stint at St James's Park.

Thirteen years on, Gazza was again on the mat on Sunday evening as Hoddle prepared to break the bad news to him. And the man delegated to go and take him to the manager's room? None other than Roedder, now a member of England's back-up team.

On Hoddle's decision, Charlton said: "He can only have made it after agonising for ages. Managers don't always rely on just their own judgement in these matters. You take soundings from people around you and keep your ears and eyes open for little bits of advice.

"I once had to make a similar decision and tell Gary Waddock that he wasn't coming with us to the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Even now, eight years on, I have nothing but the greatest respect for the dignified way he accepted what I had to tell him. For me, he remains one of the game's gentlemen."

Venables was even more forthcoming in the debate about Gascoigne yesterday when he told Hoddle he should have been more patient with the player instead of dropping him. Venables steered England to the semi-finals of Euro 96 when Gascoigne's skills helped restore national pride, even after lurid revelations about pre-tournament boozing antics. Yesterday he insisted that had he still been in charge of the England team he would have taken him to France.

Venables said: "If, as we are being told by Glenn that Gazza's fitness was the only factor, I would still have had him in a squad of 22."