England’s World Cup qualifying hopes suffer injury scare as Rooney left out

The striker – who is vital to England’s World Cup qualifying hopes when they play their final two Group H qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland in the next fortnight – picked up a shin injury in training which ruled him out of last night’s 1-1 draw at Shakhtar Donetsk.

With Hodgson due to name his England squad this afternoon, it puts a big question mark alongside Rooney’s name.

Reds manager David Moyes said he was going to leave Rooney among the substitutes despite his recent impressive form. But the England forward was not even named on the bench for the clash at the Donbass Arena, although he did make the short journey from the team hotel to watch the match.

“My plan wasn’t to use him anyway, but he’s got an injury,” Moyes said.

“He picked up a crack to the shin yesterday in training so that’s made the job easy.”

It is Rooney’s fourth injury absence this season already.

The 27-year-old suffered a hamstring injury that effectively ruled him out of United’s pre-season tour to the Far East and Australia.

Then he was sidelined from the remainder of United’s pre-season campaign with a shoulder injury, before suffering a nasty gash on the head in an accidental training ground incident with Phil Jones that saw him miss the defeat at Liverpool and two England World Cup qualifiers.

England may top the group, but they are on shaky ground.

The Three Lions are one point ahead of Ukraine and Montenegro so only two wins will guarantee Hodgson’s men automatic entry to the finals in Brazil next summer.

Ukraine are expected to win their final two qualifiers against Poland at home and San Marino away, so, in all likelihood, if England collect four points, they will be destined for the play-offs.

If they fail to win against Montenegro a week tomorrow, and Poland four days later, then their World Cup dreams will almost certainly be over.

Ordinarily, England would be expected to win at home against both nations, but their only qualification victories so far have come against one of the world’s lowest-ranked teams in San Marino and against Moldova, who are sandwiched between Tanzania and Guyana at 129th in the rankings.

Montenegro gave England a fright in March when they put on an impressive second-half display to earn a 1-1 draw.

Montenegro coach Branko Brnovic dismissed England as an arrogant bunch of long-ball merchants in the run-up to that match. He has seen his country achieve three draws against England and he hopes to go one better at Wembley next week.