Knee injury keeps Rooney out of squad

WAYNE ROONEY is out of England’s squad for the friendly against South Africa in Durban on Thursday. A medical yesterday finally ended a controversy-packed seven days since David Moyes announced his teenage star had a knee injury.

The Everton striker will spend the next five days recuperating on Merseyside while his international team-mates spend 22 hours in the air before meeting Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Wednesday and playing Shakes Mashaba's side the following day.

Sven-Goran Eriksson hopes Rooney, 17, will be fit enough to join the rest of the squad on Friday for a six-day training camp in La Manga, Spain, ahead of the friendly with Serbia-Montenegro and the Euro 2004 qualifier with Slovakia. So the injury verdict after the week which reopened the club-versus-country conflict was as Moyes stated after last Sunday's season-ending 2-1 defeat against Manchester United.