Rooney grateful Capello fought his Euro cause

When a three-match ban was initially slapped on Rooney for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic in last October’s encounter with Montenegro, the Manchester United striker feared he would not get selected for this summer’s finals.

He reasoned, should England fail to emerge from their group, he would have zero involvement.

It was Capello who insisted the Football Association should appeal on Rooney’s behalf, a stance that was proved correct when UEFA sliced a game off Rooney’s suspension.

So, the 26-year-old is free to tackle co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk tomorrow, when a draw will be enough to secure a quarter-final berth.

“Being honest, if it had stayed at a three-game ban I wouldn’t have expected to be here,” he said.

“I was delighted Capello fought so hard.

“We both went over to Switzerland, appealed it and got lucky to get it down to two games.

“He did (go out on a limb) and I am grateful for that.

“Basically, he said when we went out there ‘if there’s one percent of getting the ban down we have to try for it’.”

Had Rooney missed out, it would have extended an unhappy sequence of experiences at major tournaments.

Sent off against Portugal in 2006, the striker was an agitated figure in South Africa four years later, lashing out at disgruntled England fans following a dire performance in the goalless draw against Algeria in Cape Town.

Montenegro represented another low point, yet came in a season when Rooney’s overall behaviour has been better than before.

Indeed, his first Premier League booking did not arrive until the penultimate game, leaving him as nonplussed as the rest of us by those significant dips in self-control.

“I’ve been asked a few times about what happened with that red card,” he said. “Even now, I honestly can’t explain it.

“It’s similar to the one in 2006. It’s not something I set out to do. I didn’t think, ‘Right, I’m going to kick this player’.

“I understood straight away it was a mistake and I have had to pay the price.

“Obviously as a player you have bad moments. Sometimes you have to go through those bad moments to experience the good.”

Rooney is not even willing to blame the obvious pressure that comes with being one of the world’s most high-profile sports stars for his occasional lapses, simply because he refuses to acknowledge its existence.

“I don’t feel it,” he said.

“Sometimes it might look like I do but I never think, ‘I have to try too hard’ to make us win.

“Maybe I would like to walk out and have a coffee, but it’s difficult when you have 10 to 15 people following you.

“So sometimes you do lock yourself away. But that’s part of it, I suppose.

“There are no problems with my attitude or my temperament. I’m happy and I’m ready to play.”

Nevertheless, as United manager Sir Alex Ferguson always knew when Rooney was getting into scrapes earlier in his career, maturity, and parenthood, have brought a calmer attitude.

Rooney is certainly a less bullish character than before.

For instance, it is hard to imagine him striding through the entrance of the Stary Hotel in Krakow, England’s base for the tournament, and declaring: “The big man is back,” as he did when he arrived back in Baden-Baden following his recovery from a broken metatarsal ahead of the 2006 tournament.

“I don’t think I could say that now that Andy Carroll is in the squad,” he joked.

“I’m sure you all know I’m a confident person.

“I’m not one to shy away from games. I always want to do well and feel I’m good enough to do that.

“That’s been in me since I was a young boy and it won’t change.”

Theo Walcott has given Roy Hodgson an unwanted injury scare by limping out of training.

It was thought Hodgson was considering whether to hand Walcott a starting berth in Donetsk following his eye-catching contribution to the win over Sweden.

Now it seems Walcott may not be involved at all after complaining of a “tight hamstring” that forced his withdrawal from yesterday’s closed doors training session in Krakow.

The Arsenal winger missed two games at the end of the season after suffering a similar problem and Hodgson is now waiting on the assessment of his medical team before he knows whether Walcott could play some part against the co-hosts.

“He has a slight setback,” Hodgson said.

“We had to take the precaution of taking him from the field because he felt some tightness in the hamstring that kept him out for so long at the end of the season.

“Whether he is a real contender for a starting position will depend upon what the medical people can tell me and how much guarantee they can give me that if I do start him he won’t be leaving the field after five minutes.”

Hodgson confirmed it was “a major concern”.

However, the indications were Walcott would not have started against Ukraine anyway despite his sparkling display on Friday.

England’s plans for tomorrow’s game have had to be changed due to the violent thunderstorms that almost caused France’s game against Ukraine to be abandoned on Friday.

Although the game was eventually completed after an hour’s delay, UEFA want to protect the surfaced and barred both teams from training on it as normal.