Capello set to start Rooney
England manager Fabio Capello will play Carling Cup winner Wayne Rooney against Egypt on Wednesday if a scan on his knee gives the striker the all clear.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson flagged up a slight knee problem as the reason he benched Rooney for Sunday's showpiece final, but his top scorer was called into action following an injury to Michael Owen in the first-half.
Capello was at Wembley to cast his eye over the final and could see little wrong with Rooney's knee judging by the striker's usual all action performance and his match-winning goal in the 2-1 victory against Aston Villa.
While Ferguson would love Rooney to sit out England's friendly, Capello doesn't have another game until May and will want to put out as near a full strength team as he can manage. The African champions have been handpicked to provide a dress rehearsal for England's Group C opponents Algeria at the World Cup in South Africa.
For that reason Capello (who would preferably like Rooney to take a rest), will start him in the England attack. But to avoid any grey areas of doubt about his fitness, the England camp sent Rooney for a scan on Monday.
An England insider told Soccernet on Monday: "The scan doesn't lie, if he has a knee problem it will show up, if he doesn't then he will train and most likely play."
The BBC were informed, when they enquired why Rooney was on the bench, that he was suffering the after affects of flu and released that information during their live coverage of the Carling Cup final.
Rooney looked puzzled in the post-match interview as to how he had overcome the flu, claiming he had a slight knee problem and Ferguson said that the striker was feeling slight discomfort after the match.
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