Capello certain Rooney is ready for Swiss role

As expected, the Manchester United striker was on yesterday morning's flight from Luton despite weekend allegations about his private life.

Swiss coach Ottmar Hitzfeld never felt there was a possibility of Rooney missing such a crucial game and last night Capello confirmed his star man is ready for battle.

"I spoke with him, he said he was focused and that he wanted to play against Switzerland," confirmed Capello.

"I am sure (tonight) he will play a really good game, the same level as he was against Bulgaria."

Capello must be starting to get rather tired of dealing with such stories.

In the build-up to the World Cup, John Terry was the man in the firing line, the England coach feeling the claims were so serious it merited the Chelsea centre-half being stripped of the captain's armband for his country.

As it appears no sanction has been taken against Rooney, there would be claims of bias.

Yet Capello feels the two cases are different.

"I never suspended Terry," countered the Italian.

"He played all the games. But he was the captain, so we changed it."

Although there is a temptation to feel English players have greater difficulty than the mainland European counterparts when it comes to their domestic life, Capello does not believe that is necessarily true.

Quite possibly though, the scrutiny is greater, even if the Italian is keen to keep footballing matters and private situations separate.

"It is the world, not only England," he said.

"The same things happen in other countries; French, German, Italian. Sometimes the players ignore the rules of life.

"The players know what they have to do in their private life. But it is their private life."

Terry memorably made a telling contribution to Chelsea's title drive at Burnley during the worst of his troubles, backing up Capello's theory players can still perform on the pitch no matter what turbulence they are enduring elsewhere.

Indeed, the England coach spoke of his admiration for Rooney just for being in Switzerland, when many expected he would return home to sort out his relationship with wife Coleen.

"It is good for us that he is here," said Capello.

"For one player to stay here at this moment is really important."

Clearly, Capello is far more comfortable discussing other matters in connection with Rooney, namely the ease with which he adapted to a new role just in front of the two holding midfielders in Friday's victory over Bulgaria at Wembley.

Against a Switzerland team who claimed their only World Cup win by beating Spain thanks to a blanket defence, the thought of overcoming it without his best player would have been tough for Capello to contemplate, even if there is a body of opinion that the best place for the 24-year-old right now is back in the north-west with his seven-month-old son Kai.

"Rooney will play in the same position because he really liked it," said Capello.

"He gets the ball a lot, he can be free to move around the pitch and he can go from the back towards the goal.

"It is a really important position and you can see how enthusiastic he is. After the game on Friday he was really happy."

Presumably his mood darkened 24 hours later as news of what was being reported leaked out.

It has been suggested the fear of something similar happening during the summer was one of the factors in Rooney's disappointing World Cup.

Not that Capello agrees.

"It was not just Wayne Rooney," he said. "We arrived in South Africa at the end of the season and all the English players were tired. The level was not the same as it had been before."

However, Rooney's excellent contribution of three direct assists and a major influence in Jermain Defoe's early opener, was a huge factor in a four-goal triumph that would leave them well placed to claim a spot at the finals in Poland and Ukraine if they can follow it up with another success today in what is generally regarded as the Three Lions' hardest Group G game.

With Michael Dawson ruled out through injury, Capello has to decide between Matthew Upson, Joleon Lescott and Gary Cahill for what is set to be his only change.

Cahill gained his first cap as Dawson's replacement at Wembley, when Upson and Lescott did not even make the bench, and he is slight favourite even if his lack of experience is a concern.