England's hopes of having Wayne Rooney fit for the World Cup received a boost on Friday when the forward underwent his most vigorous training session since he broke a bone in his foot at the end of April.
Rooney, 20, could be seen running, turning and doing some ball work at Manchester United's Carrington training complex on the outskirts of Manchester, five days before he undergoes a scan on his injured right foot which will determine whether he plays in Germany.
England coach Steve McClaren, who will take over as head coach from Sven-Goran Eriksson after the World Cup, said he was delighted to see Rooney apparently progressing so well.
"He has been working with the United physios all this week," Mc Claren said.
"He's stepping things up, joining us on Monday and having the relevant scans, so things are progressing well. Of course, you never take things for granted in football and with the metatarsal especially," he added.
"Hopefully the scans will be okay but you've seen the progress he's making. He's a confident lad and he wants to be there and he'll be doing everything possible to be there."
{{/usCountry}}"Hopefully the scans will be okay but you've seen the progress he's making. He's a confident lad and he wants to be there and he'll be doing everything possible to be there."
{{/usCountry}}Rooney's United team-mate Gary Neville missed England's training session on Friday after failing to recover sufficiently from a hamstring problem he incurred in Tuesday's 3-1 win over Hungary.
Road to finals
0-2 lost to Netherlands
1-0 beat Romania
3-0 beat Armenia
2-0 beat Macedonia
4-3 beat Finland
4-0 beat Andorra
8-1 beat Andorra
6-1 beat Macedonia
0-2 lost to Romania
4-1 beat Armenia
0-2 lost to Netherlands
3-0 beat Finland
Playoffs:
Czech Republic v Norway (aggregate score 2-0).