Two days until the start of the competition and England have yet to make up their mind about wether they are bringing Wayne Rooney or not. The hysteria is worse than 2002 when it was the captains turn take the pre-World Cup headlines for a tournament threatening injury.

Should Sven have made his decision earlier? What effect is all the Rooney hype having on the team? Having every report on any form of media,  tell them that their chances of winning the cup were destroyed the second Rooney got injured cannot be good for the rest of the squad. They are some of the worlds best players as voted by the worlds players. I for one couldn’t tell Frank Lampard or John Terry that they will not win, they have a massive winning spirit developed over the last two years by the ‘Special One’. Why could they not carry this in to the England camp and spread around the squad. There are a number of other domestic winners from the squads of Liverpool and Manchester United.

How must the decision to wait be affecting the stand-by Jermain Defoe? He had a poor finish to his season at Tottenham, where he was only a squad player behind the favoured front two of Robbie Keane and Mido. That knock to his confidence is miniscule compared to the massive blow that Sven & the media are dealing him now. It is their belief that a fully fit Jermain Defoe is not good enough to be in the squad ahead of a player in Rooney who may not until its too late, or a wonder kid who hasn’t played in the premiership for his club and whose experience is from a couple of games last year in the championship. What ever Defoe’s form, his moral must be through the floor, but England expects and should he get the call he should grab it with both hands to prove all the doubters wrong.

Defoe has the agonising wait today as Rooney flies back to Manchester for the scan that will dictate wether he stays in Baden-Baden or goes home on the plane that will carry Rooney back from his scan.