KEVIN McCARRA
GROUP G: WAYNE ROONEY will be consigned to the shadows of the England squad for the next eight months. Following the forward's red card in the 2-2 draw with Montenegro last week Fabio Capello has decided to use him purely as a substitute until he has served his suspension at the Euro 2012 finals in June. Uefa will decide today whether the attacker is to be banned for one match or two.
"Without the sending-off of Rooney we would have won," the manager said as he set out the consequences of the second dismissal in the player's international career. "Sometimes he will come on at half-time. But not from the start; he will not start. We need to prepare the first XI who will start in the Euros."
Sardonic humour lightened the mood only slightly when Capello added: "He will be fresh."
There was a warning, too, that Rooney should not assume he will cease to be a mere substitute at the finals. "I have got a lot of forwards at this moment, really good forwards," Capello said. "In my life as a manager I have put on the bench a lot of players."
The only comfort for Rooney came in the fact that the manager will take him to Euro 2012 but Capello was still at pains to emphasise the alternatives and handed out more compliments than usual. "Danny Welbeck played 15 minutes and played really well and it will be interesting when we play against Spain that these new players will start."
Another friendly, against Portugal, is anticipated three days later, so long as those opponents are not in the Euro 2012 play-offs. Capello is keen to experiment with team selection and tactics. He wants to study the emerging talent of young strikers such as Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge.
His investigations will continue into players with the power to act as a target man. Andy Carroll and Bobby Zamora come into that category.
In addition Jermain Defoe, an entirely different type of centre-forward at Tottenham Hotspur, has caught his eye again even if he was not in the party for Montenegro.
"Sturridge and Defoe, these two," said Capello when asked after last week's draw about strikers in his thoughts. "For this game I selected five players. I wanted to see Zamora, Andy Carroll in training. This was Andy's third or fourth time with us. Zamora is an interesting player and we need to see him play against some important teams. We will do that.
"I saw the game that Defoe played against Arsenal and he played really well, ran a lot, pressed a lot.
"Sturridge is the same. I need to find the solution for the first game, or two games, that Rooney will not play. And if we find that solution, he needs to work to return to the first XI."
In reality, of course, Capello cannot dismiss from his mind a player of Rooney's calibre. Prior to the red card the forward had been involved in the build-up to both England goals. Afterwards it was the dismissal and its consequences that got the attention.
If Uefa is consistent, Rooney could miss the first two group games at Euro 2012.
A less vindictive offence by Andrey Arshavin in a qualifier with Andorra led to that suspension at Euro 2008. The Football Association still hopes that Rooney will miss only the first England game.
Cynics might assume that the player is enough of a star for Uefa to be lenient. Capello's intention of marginalising Rooney until June could be the greatest punishment of all. It is almost feasible that the forward may by then be worrying about his place in the starting line-up.
Rooney has had an eventful career but he is in curious territory. Although he does not need to justify himself with goals, it would be significant for England if someone in such a central role posed a more direct threat.
Despite two goals against Bulgaria in Sofia last month, he has now scored only three in his past 18 appearances for England. No one foresaw that trend when he was finding the net freely in the early part of Capello's tenure.
It is possible the manager is genuinely interested in seeing how the side performs without him on the field.
Rooney has not taken part as a substitute for his country since the 2006 World Cup finals when an ankle injury limited his involvement against Trinidad and Tobago.
At the moment any pain is being felt in his mind. Capello was infuriated by the needless red card against Montenegro when Rooney lost control of himself because he had lost control of the ball.
The manager had been sure that the player's temperament was unruffled despite the arrest of Rooney's father as part of a police inquiry into allegedly suspicious betting patterns, although the Montenegro management felt it may have played a part in his subsequent sending-off.
Capello's trust in the forward's professionalism was misplaced and the memory of the debacle will linger in the Italian's mind.
Guardian Service
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