Dudek, 32, has finally recovered from an elbow injury and, although hoping for a recall, fully expects Celtic's Artur Boruc to retain his place in the Poland side after helping them to the brink of qualification. For all his experience, it would be a risk to bring back Dudek, whose last competitive game was for Liverpool on that mad May glory night against AC Milan in Istanbul, when he saved two kicks in the penalty shoot-out to deliver the Champions League trophy.
It was another night when a Polish goalkeeper could have been christened a clown as Dudek distracted the Milan kickers by employing the wobbly legs trick patented by Bruce Grobbelaar in Liverpool's 1984 European Cup win against Roma on penalties. But the tears of the clown were pure joy afterwards, a delirious high point for a man who has often enraged his Liverpool bosses with comical errors.
His elbow injury means that he has not even been able to take a curtain call from the Kop, like the rest of his victorious team-mates. And he admits: "It's been very difficult for me. It's very emotional watching your team-mates from the stand. It's a different experience and you lose a lot more sleep watching than playing. It is very nervy."
Even without the small matter of World Cup qualification, Poland, like most other countries in the world, regard all games against England the way the English regard games against Brazil: a test of their standing in the world game.
Dudek said: "Everyone in Poland dreams about playing against England. It's a prestigious fixture and Wednesday night is huge for us. We mustn't have any fear or get caught up in the hype around England and their manager. We just have to go out and play our game."
Although the current squad do not match up to some of the great Polish teams of the past and were written off at the start of the campaign, they have a 100 per cent away record in Group Six qualification and, after eight successive wins, will arrive at Old Trafford believing they can raise further question marks about the quality of Sven-Goran Eriksson's England team.
Dudek said: "We were all very surprised when we heard about their result against Northern Ireland. We were concentrating on our own games at the time but, when the news came through, as you can imagine, we were all very happy. It gave us a lift. We know we only need a point at Old Trafford but it is not our style to play for a draw. We will be coming to win."
One of the things guaranteed to make Dudek even more nervous if he is only a spectator on Wednesday is the thought he might not only miss out on the World Cup finals but never get another chance to add to his 50 international caps. Not only has the highly-rated Boruc performed well for his country, Dudek is likely to find it difficult to regain his Liverpool place from the impressive Jose Reina.
Dudek seems to have spent his whole career fighting off rivals and he is confident of regaining the No 1 spot for Poland, saying: "I have seen off plenty of others." But unless he can quickly regain his Liverpool place, the odds will widen on his hopes of a recall.
It is amazing that he was even around to become Liverpool's hero in Istanbul since his Anfield career seemed over after he was dropped by Gerard Houllier following the Premiership howlers against Manchester United in 2002/03. And his month in the wilderness might have been much longer had his replacement, Chris Kirkland, not suffered an injury.
Kirkland, fancied by Eriksson as a future England goalkeeper, is currently out of Dudek's hair on loan at West Brom. But Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez's £6 million signing of Reina in the summer was hardly a vote of confidence and the unfortunate timing of Dudek's injury means he must now be regarded as second choice.
Yet how he would love the chance to savour another glory night on Wednesday in the manner of Jan Tomaszewski, who famously denied England in 1973. "Was he a clown? asks Dudek. "Well, I wouldn't mind being called that if I could play like he did against England."