Wayne Rooney is highly impressed with his competition at striker on the English national team as Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy have emerged.

“If the manager needs to have a look to see what he can do at international level, you have to understand that,” Rooney said. “It’s a huge challenge to keep your place in the team and that’s what I want to do. I want to prove myself. I feel that since Roy has been in charge, my international form has been great, I have scored a lot of goals and I hope that will continue.

“As a footballer you want to play. But then I have to understand I have played a lot of games for England and players like Jamie Vardy have come in and done well. It’s certainly the best group of strikers since I’ve been involved in the squad. We’ve also got players such as Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge and Theo Walcott out injured so it’s a huge array of talent and great for the country. In previous years we’ve gone into tournaments and haven’t had that many match-winners in the squad. Now we’ve got quite a few match-winners, which can only benefit us as a team.”