England manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Manchester United's Wayne Rooney will remain the captain of England's senior side.
Important to the squad
The country's all-time top scorer has come under fire in recent weeks, with the fiasco of the wedding incident and his lack of form leading people to see the 31-year-old stripped of his captaincy.
However since the incident Rooney has been in a good run of form, and during his official announcement as England manager, Southgate stated that Rooney will be remaining as skipper.
"Wayne is England captain," Southgate told his press conference. "I think I said that at the beginning of the interim period."
"But what's also clear is I've only selected him to start in two of the four matches we've had," he stated. "Obviously it's not the case that Wayne expects to play every game."
"Wayne has played an important part for England up to this point," Southgate added. "I'm sure he can do that in the future but we also have to develop others."
Benefit from tournament football
Southgate gave opportunities during his time as interim manager, with the likes of Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Jesse Lingard and Aaron Cresswell getting opportunities.
There is optimism for the Under-21 side ahead of this summer's European Championships, and their former manager stated that young forward Marcus Rashford could benefit from tournament football.
"As we go forward," he said. "The summer is a good opportunity for a group of players who have worked incredibly hard to get to those finals to build on what they did in Toulon last summer."
"Marcus would benefit from tournament football," the coach admitted. "But I'm conscious of his age and workload over the season."
Southgate concluded: "So we will assess it and work out what is best for him."