Wayne Rooney trains with England squad ahead of Scotland friendly

Striker shows no signs of his shoulder injury as he begins training half an hour before everyone else

Wayne Rooney in England training with ‘close friend’ Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole (Getty)

Wayne Rooney was seen training with England today half an hour before the session was due to start, showing no signs of the shoulder injury that kept him out of Manchester United’s 2-0 Community Shield victory over Wigan.

The striker also missed the majority of United’s pre-season programme, featuring in a behind-closed-doors match against Real Betis for just 45 minutes as a hamstring injury also hampered his playing time over the summer.

Chelsea’s interest in Rooney has plunged his Old Trafford future into doubt over recent weeks, with the Europa League champions making two unsuccessful bids for the England international, and Rooney is believed to prefer a move away from his current club after former boss Sir Alex Ferguson admitted last season that Rooney had asked for a transfer.

But Ferguson’s successor, David Moyes, has said that Rooney will not be leaving the club as he looks to build on his fellow-Scots success and improve the Premier League champions.

Moyes also claimed that it was unlikely that Rooney would play against Scotland on Wednesday due to the shoulder injury, but he looked fine when the squad trained today at St George’s Park.

Rooney appeared on the pitch just after 10am, with the training session not due to start until 11am as he looked to get in some practice before the rest of the squad joined him around half an hour later.

He did some stretching as well as shooting and passing practice with the goalkeeper and coaching staff, and he showed no signs of bother from either his shoulder or his hamstring.

Moyes remained defiant yesterday though that he would not allow the 27-year-old to leave the club, and he insisted that reports of a falling out between the two were far from the truth.

“I’m enjoying talking about it because so many of you have got it wrong,” Moyes said when speaking about the matter.

“I didn’t fall out with Wayne, he trained with the reserves at his own request. He couldn’t have contact because of his shoulder injury so he played as a floating player [a player who plays for the team in possession] with no contact. Anyone who wrote anything else is misleading their readers.”