Wayne Rooney left out of Community Shield squad

Football
By - | Aug 11, 2013

England striker Wayne Rooney has been left out of Manchester United's Community Shield squad because of a shoulder injury.

The 27-year-old has trained with United's reserves this week but was not deemed fit to face Wigan at Wembley.

Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra are, however, all expected to return for United after missing Rio Ferdinand's testimonial on Friday.

Wigan are without captain Gary Caldwell but James McClean could make his debut.

Another new signing, Thomas Rogne, is out with a back problem for Wigan, though Leon Barnett and Emmerson Boyce are expected to retain their places in Owen Coyle's side.

Grant Holt will lead the line for his new club after dropping down a division from Norwich, with Marc Antoine-Fortune also in contention.

Rooney missed Rio Ferdinand's testimonial against Sevilla at Old Trafford on Friday, having suffered the injury during a behind-closed-doors match nine days ago.

But Roy Hodgson has included the striker in his squad for England's friendly against Scotland at Wembley on Wednesday.

Rooney publicly thanked Hodgson for his "faith and support" in a message on his Facebook account on Friday. "Can't wait to join up with the England squad and hopefully play in a competitive match, they always are against Scotland," Rooney wrote.

"Big thanks to Roy Hodgson for selecting me and showing his faith and support, appreciate it."

However Manchester United manager David Moyes told MUTV he expected the striker to be used sparingly by England.

"I had a long conversation with Roy about it last week," Moyes said.

"Wayne has had a shoulder injury. He has been sore with it, which has meant he has not been able to have any contact. He has trained a little bit with the reserves as a non-contact player, a floating player, so at least he got a little bit of football work.

"He trained with the first team on Saturday and he did a bit of extra work, so he is probably more likely to be ready for England than he will be for us. You've got to remember he has had no football practice.

"I explained all this and I would only expect Roy to play him for a short time."

Hodgson has already said that he believes Rooney is physically fit but it has now been more than a month since the striker joined up with United's senior squad since leaving the club's pre-season in Asia with a hamstring injury.

United insist that Rooney will not be sold this summer, having rejected two bids from Chelsea.

- BBC

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