• Hodgson explains decision to leave out Drinkwater and Townsend
Wayne Rooney has been impressed with the attitude shown by his Manchester United team-mate Marcus Rashford both at club and international level.Rashford, who broke into the United side this season and scored eight goals, was included in Roy Hodgson’s 23-man England squad for the European Championship in France this month.
Euro 2016: the complete guide to every squad and every player in France
Read moreRashford scored three minutes into his England debut against Australia last Friday and Rooney and Hodgson are now looking forward to seeing more from him in an England shirt.
Speaking before the squad’s last warm-up game against Portugal on Thursday, Rooney said: “I think the way he took to coming into the Manchester United team and the way he’s performed from when he’s come in until the end of the season has been incredible really.
“He’s certainly showed what he can do in his first game for England, getting his first goal in the first couple of minutes.
“I think what’s pleasing about him is his attitude, it’s first-class and that’s shown around the hotel and on the training pitch and he deserves it. He could be a real positive for us.”
Hodgson said: “Rashford’s had that fantastic end to the season and he’s a very, very interesting player.
“He has special qualities and I think that’s been recognised by everybody – and it will be very interesting to see in a squad of 23 whether or not he can bring those qualities to bear at an even higher level.”
On his decision to leave Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater and Newcastle United’s Andros Townsend out of his squad, Hodgson said: “It was a very difficult decision [to trim the squad to 23].
“For a long period of time, if anything, we haven’t had an enormous amount of choice and sometimes there have been comments that we don’t have enough players to pick from. Suddenly we do have a lot of players to pick from and it was a very tough decision for me.
“I was very happy with the 26, I was delighted with the way the three guys who didn’t get selected for the final 23 worked and yesterday was a difficult day for me having to tell them they weren’t going to be in the final 23.
“But I must say the players were fantastic, they were unbelievably understanding of the need that I had to make a decision. They ended by wishing everybody well and that they had enjoyed the preparation time. They made the job as easy for me as it could possibly be.”
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