Rooney ready to return

Wayne Rooney will return to the England squad on Friday at the expense of Darren Bent.

Charlton striker Bent has been named by Peter Taylor in the under-21 squad to face Germany in the two-legged European Championship play-off.

He makes way for Rooney, who is available for the senior team's Euro 2008 qualifiers against Macedonia and Croatia after serving a two-match ban for his red card in the World Cup quarter-final against Portugal.

Bent, who has scored eight in 12 games for the under-21s, was on the bench for England games against Andorra and Macedonia last month but was not used.

This will be the first time Steve McClaren has been able to call on Rooney since taking over as manager after the World Cup finals.

McClaren has trickier decisions to replace injury victims Owen Hargreaves and Aaron Lennon, when he names his squad this afternoon.

Newcastle's Scott Parker has made a solid case to be brought in for Hargreaves, who broke his leg playing for Bayern Munich earlier this month.

Joe Cole has only played 10 minutes for Chelsea this season after suffering a knee injury in pre-season which was aggravated on his comeback against Werder Bremen.

McClaren is unlikely to pick Cole with no match practice and Liverpool's Jermaine Pennant has a chance of his first call-up to the squad in place of Lennon, who is recovering from a knee operation.