Everybody wants to know if Rooney will play today against Trinidad and Tobago. He is recovering, we can see him on the news moving around in training sessions, but is he good for a game? Isn’t it too early to force him into play?

“For me Rooney is match-fit, but about that story, let me sleep on it,” Eriksson told a press conference when asked if he would play Rooney. “I will decide tomorrow morning.”

Eriksson said if Rooney featured in the match it would almost certainly be as a substitute. “Almost for sure not starting the match, because I don’t think he has 90 minutes in his legs yet,” he said.

The FA boss was also said to be reluctant to antagonise Rooney’s paymasters at Manchester United, whose boss Sir Alex Ferguson is enraged by the possibility of their player featuring in the group phase.

Eriksson denied any suggestion of a rift with Barwick however. “It’s been reported that Brian and I had an argument about it. That’s completely a lie,” Eriksson said. “We have discussed it a lot in a positive way but there’s absolutely no dispute at all.”

I hope it is not too early.

Source: WCoffsite