Euro 2012: Roy Hodgson has faith in England’s midfield stamina

England manager Roy Hodgson insists he is not worrying about his central midfield pairing Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker running out of steam at Euro 2012. With that area of the team especially depleted by injuries, England need Gerrard and Parker to stay fit but playing every four days is bound to sap the energy of two players who are over 30.

But Hodgson said: “Scott’s 31 and Steven 32, we’re not talking about old players. Certainly, Sweden have players considerably older than our team and I think I heard that we are the third youngest squad in the tournament. Age doesn’t bother me. Obviously, when you go into the third game, you are going to be concerned for all your players, not just Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker. You’re going to be concerned for them all, whatever age they are, because three games played in Ukraine in heat takes it out of everybody.

“But we have the players I think in the squad to step up to the plate and I’m pretty sure that, first of all, these players will be wanting to play all the games and they’ll be working very hard as they’ve done after this France game to make certain they recover and are ready to go again.”

England take on Sweden tomorrow as they look to build on their 1-1 opening draw with the French. And Hodgson revealed the line-up to face the Swedes is likely to be similar to the one which started on Monday.

He said: “I think so. There won’t be wholesale changes, that’s for certain, because we don’t have any injury problems and the players who did well against France are all hoping to get picked to play again.”

One man who will not feature is Wayne Rooney, with the striker serving the final match of his suspension. He will return against co-hosts Ukraine in the final group game and Hodgson knows his return will greatly improve the England attack.

“We’ve missed him, there’s no question of that,” he said. “When you talk about Sweden you talk a lot about [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and how important he is for them and how he can decide a game, how his individual ability and the fact he is a world class player can make an enormous difference.

“We’ve got one of them in our squad as well. His name is Wayne Rooney and he’s a world class player and there’s no doubt that, when we get him on the field, we’ll be a much stronger and more potent attacking force than we are when he’s not playing.

“But his training’s been excellent and his attitude around the place has also been excellent. He’s been very, very supportive of the young players so he just needs now to hang on for another couple of days.

“He needs to keep helping us out in the way that he’s been doing so because his chance will come soon and he’s desperate, of course, that we go far in the tournament because he wants to play more than one game.”

Meanwhile, England’s players have been getting their hair cut in time for a reunion with the WAGs – with Rooney was among those sporting new styles ahead of the arrival of wife Coleen and son Kai.

“The barber came in and set up his own little shop in Ashley Young’s room,” revealed Danny Welbeck. “Quite a few members of the England staff and players went in.”

Welbeck confirmed no-one had been winding up Rooney about his trim, which is probably just as well given his Manchester United team mate spent £30,000 on a hair transplant 12 months ago. It is fairly obvious Rooney wishes he had other things on his mind as well.

The 26-year-old even carried a bag of balls on to the training pitch in Krakow yesterday as he prepares to serve the final game of his two-match suspension by sitting out Friday’s second Group D outing against Sweden in Kiev.

“We all know the passion that Wayne’s got for football,” said Welbeck. “Obviously, he’s itching to get out on the pitch. It’s going to be better for us once the suspension’s gone and he can come and play for us against Ukraine.”

In the meantime, Welbeck is likely to be continuing his partnership with another Red Devil, Young, following his eye-catching display against France. Not that the 21-year-old viewed his performance in such a positive light.

A laid-back character by nature, Welbeck felt there were obvious areas to improve upon.

“I was quite isolated at times but, at that level of football, you’re not really going to get as much possession of the ball as you are used to,” he said. “You’ve got to take it in your stride and, once you do get the ball, try to move it quickly to bring others into play.”

Ashley Cole sparked a minor scare when he walked out of yesterday’s training session, although the FA quickly confirmed it was part of a normal programme for the Chelsea defender not to train in the two days after a game in order to protect a long-standing ankle injury. Liverpool defender Martin Kelly was still absent, though, having failed to recover from the virus that has affected him throughout his time in Poland.