Wayne Rooney named England captain for San Marino

Wayne Rooney has been named England captain by manager Roy Hodgson for Friday's World Cup qualifier at Wembley versus San Marino. The Manchester United attacker has captained his national side once before in a friendly versus Brazil in 2009. Liverpool's Steven Gerrard is the skipper for the Three Lions but he will be serving a suspension for this match after being sent off in a previous qualifier versus Ukraine. Chelsea's Frank Lampard is typically the deputy but he will be sidelined for the match due to a knee injury. Here is what Wazza had to say about captaining England:

"It's a great honour, it's something I'm really proud of. It's a big challenge for myself, I'm really looking forward to it and excited, and hopefully we can cap the day off with a good victory."

- Rooney

According to the FIFA rankings, San Marino is the worst side in Europe and joint worst in the world. Rooney will probably be captaining England to a fairly easy victory. With Gerrard and Lampard missing from the England midfield, it seems very likely that United midfielders Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick will feature together at Wembley. Danny Welbeck has not been a first-choice striker as of late for Hodgson but he's certainly a candidate to feature as well.