Interim England manager Gareth Southgate has insisted that Wayne Rooney has nothing to prove during Friday's World Cup qualifier against Scotland.
Rooney will return to the side for the Group F clash at Wembley having been dropped to the bench during England's last match against Slovenia.
The 31-year-old has recently returned to the Manchester United starting XI too, and Southgate believes that the country's record goalscorer is beginning to regain his confidence.
"I think he will play well. He doesn't have anything to prove to me. The whole basis of our conversation around that game wasn't about my belief in him as a player. I made a decision that I thought was right for that game. But I think he is a big-game player with big-match experience and I think a night like tomorrow is perfect for him," he told reporters.
"He wasn't in a flow of playing. He has had more matches since. He had two 90 minutes last week, scored and had two assists. To my mind, even in his training, he looks freer in his mind and I think that is a key to people being able to perform, really. I think class is permanent, isn't it? Look, we all have moments as players where you have runs of games and part of being a top professional for years is that you have to grind the difficult moments out.
"There's matches and periods where you know you are not at your best and they're games you have to grind out and play your part for the team. And then there's other moments where you start to get into a flow and everything is happening more naturally. To me, he looks like he is just heading into that period, which is great for us."
The upcoming matches against Scotland and Spain will be Southgate's last two in temporary charge of the team before the FA appoints a permanent successor to Sam Allardyce.
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