Rooney’s ready, says Capello

Fabio Capello believes Wayne Rooney is ready to take the World Cup by storm.

The Italian, who revealed on Thursday that he has already selected his starting XI for England’s World Cup opener with the United States in Rustenburg on Saturday evening, said the Manchester United striker had been banging in the goals and looking extremely sharp in training.

“He is in a good moment, he trains very well and he scores goals during training, which is important for him,” Capello said. “I think he will play a fantastic World Cup.”

Capello denied that the pressure of managing England and the huge expectations surrounding the squad were beginning to get to him, 24 hours after an angry outburst at photographers at England’s training camp.

“I’m relaxed,” he insisted. “I can understand the pressure because in every moment we walk around you can see the security, the journalists, you can see when you move to golf, to safari, you need to police a lot of this.

“I understand that this is a really, really important moment for the country.”

Capello’s main selection dilemma was thought to be over David James, Robert Green or Joe Hart as to who will start in goal but he has also had to choose between Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right wing, decide on a replacement for the injured Rio Ferdinand and assess whether Peter Crouch or Emile Heskey is the better option as a strike partner for Wayne Rooney.

“I know the 11 that will play Saturday and I hope the next two days, during the training, all the players will be fit,” Capello told BBC Radio.

England have looked unconvincing in their final warm-up matches but were impressive during qualifying and Capello believes his 18 months in charge have resulted in a significant improvement in the performance levels of a squad whose confidence had been shredded by their failure to reach Euro 2008.

“We found a spirit, different systems to play during the game, a lot of players know me better, but I think everything is different.”