Eriksson glad to have Rooney back in action

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON insisted he was relieved Wayne Rooney was back in an England shirt after England had booked their place in the knockout stages of the World Cup with a 2-0 victory against Trinidad and Tobago.

Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard scored late goals, but only after Eriksson had brought Rooney off the bench to replace Michael Owen after 58 minutes.

The Manchester United striker, who had been out of action since fracturing a metatarsal almost seven weeks ago, had been given a clean bill of health in a statement by independent doctors earlier in the day.

Eriksson insisted he could use him from the start in the next match against Sweden if he so wanted.

“I’m relieved the saga of Rooney is over. We have talked about it every day. Not only in the press conferences but with the players. We are fed up with it. It’s over and that’s very good,” said the Swede.

“We all know Rooney is not at 100% form. But if he had had that 30 minutes in the next match or the one after he would have been further behind.

“Now he’s in it and can only be better and better.

“He did very well when he came on. He can’t come out and be the best man on the pitch when he has not played for a long time. You have to play football to get match fit.

“The tackles are different, the tempo is higher. But all the squad are glad to see him on the pitch instead of talking about him.

“It was important the independent doctors said he was match fit. Now it’s up to me to use him as I want to. There are no limits, it’s up to me.”

Eriksson believed the performance was an improvement on Saturday’s 1-0 victory against Paraguay, although England squandered a series of chances.

Added Eriksson: “We showed a lot of patience. It is difficult to play a team with nine or 10 men behind the ball and they had discipline.

“If we had taken our chances it would have been a different match.”

David Beckham, who ended up at right back when Aaron Lennon was brought on to deliver some extra pace, won the man of the match award.

He said: “You’re always relieved when you go at a team as much as we did and get nothing.

“If we’d taken chances we’d have been well up. We kept on creating chances and a lot of credit to Trinidad and Tobago because they were a tough team and gave us a few frights.”