United's Rooney will be fit to face Everton

Wayne Rooney is set to be fit for Manchester United’s trip to his former club Everton on Saturday, England manager Roy Hodgson has said.

United manager Louis van Gaal is waiting to see whether five players including Rooney, Michael Carrick and Bastian Schweinsteiger, will have recovered from injuries in time to feature at Goodison Park.

Rooney missed England’s 2-0 victory over Estonia on Friday and did not travel to Lithuania for Monday’s Euro 2016 qualifier because of an ankle injury.

Midfielder Carrick, the United vice-captain, did not play in the Estonia win and will miss the Lithuania game because of an ankle problem.

England manager Hodgson told reporters: “From his [Rooney’s] point of view, and United’s, the rest will do him good. I fully expect to see him fit for United next weekend.

“Michael Carrick trained fully in quite an intense training session on Wednesday but had a reoccurrence of a feeling that he sometimes gets in his groin — a slight tightening of the groin — and we didn’t want to take any chances.”

Rooney, who began his career at Everton before joining United in 2004, has scored only once in his last 13 Premier League games.

Germany midfielder Schweinsteiger missed his country’s 1-0 defeat to Republic of Ireland on Thursday with a muscle injury.

However, he took part in training on Saturday and manager Joachim Low named him as an unused substitute for Sunday’s win over Georgia.

Schweinsteiger’s fellow midfielder Ander Herrera has missed United’s last two matches with a muscle problem but could return at Goodison.

Defender Marcos Rojo has sat out the last four games with a hamstring problem suffered in last month’s win at Southampton but could also be back in contention.

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