By Micah Richards Manchester City and England defender

I was gutted to miss out during Fabio Capello's first game in charge of England against Switzerland on Wednesday.

During training on the day of the game I tweaked my back when I went in for a slide tackle and when I got up I could not bend my back properly.

Our physio Gary Lewin said not to risk it so I realised at about 2pm on the Wednesday that I would not be able to play.

I did not have a clue whether I was down to play anyway because Mr Capello was not giving anything away!

Pearce got across exactly what Capello was trying to say to us, about what he wants us to do

But I was really disappointed that I was not able to show what I could do. I would have given everything if I had started the game or had come off the bench.

It was still a really good week though and it was really interesting to meet up with Capello for the first time.

When I first saw him, he seemed a powerful guy. He is quite strict, as you will have heard, and he has got a lot of rules but I think that will only help us.

I have heard all sorts of rumours about what we can and cannot do - apparently we had to speak to the captain to talk to Capello - but that one is not right!

Basically we have to eat our meals together, leave the table together and treat each other with respect - more common courtesy than rules really.

His idea is to build a team that has respect for each other and believes in each other, so more of a family than a team.

This week he wanted to keep us all together rather than go off in groups and it worked. The golf ban did not affect me anyway. I don't play because I am rubbish.

As a manager he seems to like working with you one-to-one and once he is on the training field he really takes over.

He likes to talk to his players and get his message across. When we were training he would tell you if you were not in the right position, when to get tight on a player and so on.

The players were definitely a lot more nervous than usual, nobody wanted to make a mistake and everyone was out to impress him. Nobody had the approach that they were guaranteed to start, which is how it should be.

Capello's Italian assistants speak a bit better English than he does and they were a happy bunch - they also had his will to win and it is definitely a good group.

But Stuart Pearce also has a massive role to play in the England set-up.

He was with the under-21s at the start of the week but as soon as they played their match he met up with us in the morning and did all the set-pieces with us.

Capello's English is not perfect yet and he does not want to speak too much until he knows exactly what he is saying.

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Pearce took over in that department and got across exactly what Capello was trying to say to us, about what he wants us to do.

In training I played at right-back. I was unsure about where he would play me because I have been playing at centre-back for Manchester City.

So it was just unfortunate that my injury stopped me from finding out whether I would have been picked there or not.

I have been having treatment on my back and hopefully it will not keep me out of Sunday's derby against Manchester United. I will do everything I can to be right for the weekend.

The build-up to the match will be about remembering the Munich air disaster and I just hope people pay their respects and it is seen as a good day, with nobody trying to spoil it.

It will not affect our performance though. We will respect the day but once the whistle goes we will concentrate fully on the football and we are going for the win - we are due three points.