Knee injury may cause Rooney to miss Egypt warm-up

Rooney came off the bench to score his 28th goal of the season and win the Carling Cup for Manchester United against Aston Villa yesterday.

But Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed the 24-year-old was feeling slight discomfort in his knee afterwards.

Rooney was allowed to join up with the England squad last night but will be assessed by team medical staff before Fabio Capello knows whether he has his talisman available to face the African Nations Cup winners.

"He got a whack right away," said Ferguson.

"He has been complaining a little about that for a few weeks and was holding it a bit today. In fact I thought we might have to take him off but he wanted to stay on so it was good.

"The doctors are assessing it and I don't know what England are going to do."

Capello has dashed John Terry's hopes of captaining England again while he is in charge – but still expects the central defender to be a leader without the armband.

Capello – who announced his ssquad to face Egypt on Saturday night – stripped Terry of the honour following revelations of the Chelsea star's alleged affair with the mother of Wayne Bridge's young son.

The speculation surrounding Terry's relationship with Vanessa Perroncel proved to be so hurtful for Bridge that he now feels his position within the England squad is "untenable" and has no longer made himself available for international duty.

Capello is still hoping Bridge will change his mind, although the Italian has made it clear it will not be at Terry's expense, even if there is no way he can be restored to his former status.

"Until the World Cup, John Terry will not be the captain again," said Capello. "After the World Cup? If I remain as England manager? I think not.

"I asked for the captain to set an example for the young people; for the children and the fans. What he did was not good. I told him this and he understood.

"To me, being a leader is more important than being the captain. John Terry is a leader. I have asked him to be the same. He will be the same. He will be a leader without the armband."

Stephen Warnock and Leighton Baines will be given the chance to take Bridge's place next week.

Once Wednesday's game is out of the way, and the dust has settled on Bridge's meeting with Terry at Stamford Bridge, Capello hopes the full-back will look at the situation again.

Capello's squad was notable for the inclusion of Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing and Stoke City defender Ryan Shawcross.

But the 22-year-old defender's mind may have been on other things when the squad was announced, coming two hours after he had been shown a straight red card in his side's 3-1 defeat to Arsenal for a tackle which left Gunners youngster Aaron Ramsey with a broken leg.

England squad to face Egypt at Wembley on Wednesday, March 3: James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham), Hart (Birmingham), Brown (Man Utd), Terry (Chelsea), Upson (West Ham), Lescott (Man City), Shawcross (Stoke), Baines (Everton), Warnock (Aston Villa), Milner (Aston Villa), Beckham (AC Milan), Walcott (Arsenal), Lampard (Chelsea), Barry (Man City), Gerrard (Liverpool), Carrick (Man Utd), Wright-Phillips (Man City), Downing (Aston Villa), Heskey (Aston Villa), Defoe (Tottenham), Rooney (Man Utd), Crouch (Tottenham), C Cole (West Ham).