Soccer: Rooney recovery stuns England

The sight of Wayne Rooney sprinting and kicking a ball in Manchester yesterday may have had an effect on even the natural caution of Sven Goran Eriksson.

As England's boy wonder sent a message to the nation that his broken metatarsal may not yet rule him out of the World Cup finals, his manager planned a return to the 4-4-2 formation against Jamaica today.

It was 10am (local time) at Manchester United's Carrington training ground that Rooney was spotted on the pitch with the club's physiotherapist Rob Swire, working with the ball before the England squad arrived from their city centre hotel.

His secret rehabilitation sessions have, according to sources, been taking place all week, but yesterday's was the first that involved the ball, and Rooney appeared to be striking it without restraint.

Although Rooney's session was hastily moved out of the sight of the media, who arrived early to watch England, he continued working in another part of Carrington.

His progress has caused great surprise at United, especially as it was little more than a month ago when he broke the bone against Chelsea on 29 April - England captain David Beckham said yesterday that the pace of Rooney's recovery had been much more rapid than his own.

Meanwhile, Eriksson had announced to his senior midfield players that the 4-1-4-1 formation that brought success in the second half against Hungary will be put aside today in favour of the 4-4-2 system - and Peter Crouch with Michael Owen in attack - that he expects to play against Paraguay.

The Swede has told his players that today's match will be treated as extremely competitive with most of his full-strength team playing for the full 90 minutes.

A hamstring injury will rule out Gary Neville, he did not train yesterday and Jamie Carragher will take his place at right-back, although the United man is expected to be back for Paraguay.

Substitutions will be kept to an absolute minimum as Eriksson fine-tunes the team who will start on 10 June.

On Rooney, Eriksson said that he was not aware of the player's progress, despite the fact that the player is officially handed over to the care of the England team today.

Eriksson said that despite the downbeat news earlier in the week, when Rooney's decisive scan was brought forward to 7 June in order to allow him to be replaced if necessary, the man himself was upbeat.

Eriksson said that his last conversation with Rooney about his fitness had revealed just how desperate he is to make a swift return.

"I said 'Wayne, when do you think you will be ready?' The answer was very easy. 'Saturday,' he said. 'Which Saturday?' I asked. 'Now!' he said. That's his spirit and it's very good."

Other than that, Eriksson was vague on what Rooney had done at United's training ground in the morning.

While Steve McClaren spoke to the media about Rooney's progress, the England manager said he was unaware of the earlier session.

"What he did I don't know," Eriksson said. "I know yesterday he was running a lot but today I didn't speak to anybody. It that's the truth and that he is ahead of schedule then I'm very happy."

There are still no plans for Rooney to be followed out to Germany by a team of United medical staff but, although he is now officially in the hands of the Football Association, his treatment will still be carried out by his club when he is in England.

For the veterans of metatarsal injuries in the England team, Beckham especially, Rooney's progress has been a revelation.

Beckham broke his metatarsal in March before the 2002 World Cup and said his own recovery paled in comparison with that of Rooney.

Even the speed with which Rooney had been able to discard the supportive "air boot" on his right foot had been quicker, Beckham said, than him.

"His [recovery] has gone a lot better than mine did and quicker to be honest," Beckham said. "He quickly got out of the boot, I had mine on for at least two and a half weeks and he was out of his in a week.

Physically, he will be fine because he is so young and I think he heals very quickly at his age.

"But we still have to be careful with him, I'm sure we don't want him coming back too early and I'm sure Manchester United don't want that either.

Going into this World Cup we need to have every player as fit as possible but it is going well for Wayne.

"As far as I know all he has been doing is some running and kicking a football.
I spoke to him when he did it [the injury] and spoke to him two weeks afterwards and he said it was going well. I have spoken to Gary [Neville] who has been with him nearly every day. He was working on his preparation the day after [he did the injury]."

The week has ended much better for Eriksson than it started - today is his final game in charge of England, in England.

He made the point that, despite the race against time that Rooney faces to be fit, the rest of his team are fitter than they have ever been before a major tournament.

Michael Owen may not have scored since 17 December - a hat-trick against West Ham - but he is, according to his manager, back to full fitness.

"Michael has been very focused on the World Cup for a long time now," Eriksson said.

"He's been a little bit afraid of being injured because he's coming from a big injury. But big games and Michael Owen are very close friends. It's been like that through his career. This is his third World Cup. He's still young but an experienced player and he knows how to handle himself in big tournaments."

- INDEPENDENT