Sir Alex Ferguson says Wayne Rooney could be fit to play for England in their Euro 2012 qualifier with Montenegro on October 12.
Although Manchester United manager Ferguson has not done a general press conference ahead of tomorrow's trip to Sunderland, he has done selected interviews, including with the club's in-house TV station MUTV.
And it seems the Scot, while ruling Rooney out of the Sunderland encounter with the ankle injury he aggravated at Bolton last Sunday, could be available to Fabio Capello who is due to name his squad for the game on Monday.
"Wayne trained yesterday and he wants to play tomorrow," Ferguson told local radio station Key103, who also spoke to the United boss on Friday morning. "But I have to take the view that this injury has been niggling away for a while and he kept on playing.
"I have to be dead sure that I am doing the right thing because Wayne has not been doing himself justice.
"I think in a week he will be fine. Obviously we don't play in a week, so it is up to Fabio Capello whether he wants him to."
On this occasion it clearly works to England's advantage that they only have one match to play in the forthcoming international break, on the second of the two dates.
"The Montenegro match is another 10 days away," confirmed Ferguson.
"By that time I would expect Wayne to be 100%."
