Gary Cahill To Captain England Against Estonia

Stand-in skipper Gary Cahill, Joe Hart and James Milner, who all played 90 minutes against the Estonians, also will not travel.

Theo Walcott is expected to lead the line-up for England, owing to his impressive performances in a similar position for the Gunners this season, which included an assured and determined showing during their win over arch rivals United.

Another striker who could get a chance to play up front with Rooney unavailable is Danny Ings, although he has missed the last two days of training.

Barkley – making his 16th worldwide appearance – has been in fine form for Everton so far this term.

England’s all-time leading goal-scorer Rooney was at Wembley where he was presented with a golden boot before kick-off from the man whose record he overtook Sir Bobby Charlton.

Barkley created Theo Walcott’s 45th-minute opener in Friday’s Group E game at Wembley with a beautifully weighted pass and went close to adding a second with a couple of mazy runs and shots before Raheem Sterling got on the score-sheet late on.

“We saw what he can do”, Hodgson said.

There has been plenty of debate on whether Walcott is better suited to a role as a winger or a striker but Hodgson was relaxed about his position.

“It is now, this autumn, that we have him exclusively to ourselves”. He’s perfectly comfortable with that. He just wants to play.

Hodgson denied being critical of the 21-year-old in the past.

‘But that’s a coach’s job with a very talented young player with lots of ability, using that ability in the right moments. It’s never been a problem.

Despite already having qualified for the European Championships, Hodgson said this was no time for experimentation with his team selection.

“So we chose to rest him for the session on the basis that it will help him be fit for tomorrow night”.

He said: “We would like to see him (Carrick) play, which is why I didn’t ask him to train today”.

For those who don’t fancy backing England, Paddy Power are also offering enhanced odds of 25/1 on Italy, Wales and the Netherlands to win their games. We did that quite well.

A 1-0 England win won’t exactly stir the soul, but looks the likeliest result to me and is available at 13/2 with Betway.

He told ITV1: “It was as tough as we thought it would be”. In these type of games if you are not careful and lose your concentration you can slip up.