Fabio Capello has confirmed captain John Terry will be in the England squad to face Spain and Sweden when it is named on Sunday.
Terry is currently the subject of police and Football Association investigations over an alleged racist remark made to QPR's Anton Ferdinand.
Capello spoke to Terry on Friday and also met with senior FA figures.
"He will be in the final squad," he said. "Everyone spoke about John Terry and we decided on this."
The Italian added: "[On Friday] I met him [Terry] personally, I spoke to him.
"We need to wait for what will happen about the FA investigation and the police investigation but I can tell you he is innocent until proven guilty.
"This is a really important thing - for me and the FA. For this reason I select him."
Capello named Terry in his provisional squad on Thursday and then held discussions with chairman David Bernstein, chief executive Alex Horne, Club England managing director Adrian Bevington and director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking in central London on Friday, before naming Terry in his final squad.
The meeting was followed by a personal trip by the England coach to Chelsea's Cobham training ground, where he told Terry he would be included in the final squad.
Capello also spoke to Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas, who has selected Terry since the alleged incident involving Anton Ferdinand.
The player himself has always made it clear he wants to continue playing for both club and country.
The alleged incident occurred when Chelsea took on QPR at Loftus Road on 23 October.
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand - brother of Anton - will not be included in Capello's final squad though, a decision which the Italian insists has been made on grounds of form alone.
"It's not excuses, it's real what happened," said Capello. "What did Sir Alex [Ferguson], who knows everything about him, say? He can see him every day during training. He needs more games."
England's manager claimed Ferdinand agreed when they had a brief conversation at Ferguson's 25th anniversary dinner at Lancashire County Cricket Club on Tuesday.
Capello insists he is "not concerned" about the potential reaction to his decision. Neither does he regret restoring Terry to the captaincy in March this year, 13 months after stripping him of the role following claims of an affair with an ex-girlfriend of England team-mate Wayne Bridge.
However, the move has not been made without a lot of thought, with three FA meetings having taken place over the past fortnight before arriving at this latest position.
All this and Terry might not even face the world champions, with Capello considering whether to assess the abilities of other members of his squad against the highest level of opposition.
"I don't know if he will play," admitted Capello. "It will only be for football reasons. I know the value of John Terry. It will be really important to know the value of other players when you play against the world champions.
"I need to see them because there will be injuries and suspensions so I will play [Joleon] Lescott or [Gary] Cahill or [Phil] Jagielka."
When assessing Terry's form after his performance against Arsenal last week, Capello said: "He played well before the last game he played against Arsenal.
"I saw the games. Normally he is in good form but he has played a lot of games and it is impossible to always play well."
And the Italian emphasised he had never come across any racism in English football.
"Look, I never see, I never heard, I never found racism problems in England football in my experience," he said.
"The fans never boo, never. Racist problems between the players do not exist."
