England manager says Rooney is part of his plans

Wayne Rooney is attracting interest from Chelsea Wayne Rooney is an integral part of the England set-up, regardless of whether he is playing regular first-team club football, national manager Roy Hodgson said on Monday .
The 27-year-old\'s future at Manchester United remains uncertain, with the striker unsettled at Old Trafford and Chelsea having shown interest in the player.
Hodgson conceded that he would prefer Rooney\'s future to be decided, even if United manager David Moyes insisted that he was not for sale, but said he had encountered similar situations before.
\"In my year and a bit as national team manager, I have been faced many many times with situations where players are not necessarily always playing in their team,\" he told a news conference.
\"But because they have the talent and the quality and the skills we are looking for they have still managed to be selected,\" Hodgson said before England\'s friendly with Scotland on Wednesday.
He added: \"Rooney will always be considered for England while he\'s physically fit because he\'s one of our best players.\"
In addition to his reported desire to leave Manchester United, Rooney has been struggling to return from injury that kept him out of the English Premier League champions\' pre-season tour of Asia and Sunday\'s Charity Shield.
Rooney was seen training with the squad at England\'s St George\'s Park training ground near Burton-upon-Trent, west central England, on Monday morning and Hodgson said he came through \"as expected\".
\"It\'s always difficult to know or to assess with the naked eye how fit or how match fit people are but there was no doubt in my mind that he\'s not suffering from any physical injury,\" Hodgson added.
\"It will be interesting to get the feedback from our training sessions and we can see how he looks... I\'m expecting him to tell me that everything was fine and that he\'s fit and raring to go tomorrow morning.\"
England versus Scotland is the world\'s oldest international fixture and was an annual event until 1989.
Wednesday\'s match at Wembley is the first between the neighbours and rivals in 14 years and has led to calls for the annual fixture to be revived.
Source: AFP