Cologne: England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson warned fans not to expect too much from striker Wayne Rooney when he starts Tuesday's World Cup game with Sweden.
Rooney came on for the last half-hour of Thursday's 2-0 win over against Trinidad & Tobago in Group B, nearly seven weeks after breaking his foot.
"I think he did very well when he came on and seeing him in training, he's fit and he can do more than 45 minutes," Eriksson told a news conference on Monday.
"That's the reason we're starting with him tomorrow...he's important, very important."
But asked if people might be expecting too much of the gifted 20-year-old, Eriksson said: "We shouldn't do that."
"You know that he's been out for a long time. But he played well in the 30 minutes he got at the last match and he will play better tomorrow, I'm quite sure about it. He looks sharper and sharper in training...and he will very soon be ready 100 per cent."
Eriksson believes Rooney's return to the starting line-up will help Michael Owen, who has struggled with a lack of sharpness and a lack of service.
Asked about Owen, Eriksson said: "I hope he plays better and better, of course, and I suppose it's easier for him tomorrow.
"His partner is Wayne Rooney and that means he can stay up front even more and Rooney will be the linking player, as in the past."
At least one among midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, plus striker Peter Crouch, will be rested as all are a yellow card away from a suspension and England have already qualified for the second round.
FIFA will wipe the slate clean for one yellow card picked up in the group phase.
"I will not play all three of them that's for sure," he said. "We want to win the group. But on the other hand, we want to have all players clean after the Sweden game."
Crouch is expected to be on the bench, with Owen Hargreaves replacing Gerrard as a holding midfielder.
Eriksson said he wanted to stay top of the group to have the extra rest day -- and play on Sunday instead of Saturday -- even if it meant facing host nation Germany.
"To win the group is always the best whatever happens in the other game," he said of the hosts' decisive Group A match earlier on Tuesday against Ecuador.
"We didn't do it two years ago in Portugal or four years ago in Japan. Let's hope we can do it tomorrow."
England, who need only a draw to finish top, have not tasted victory over Eriksson's native country since 1968.
"Sooner or later we have to beat them and hopefully it will be sooner," he said.
Eriksson also said that defender Gary Neville will not play in their World Cup Group B game against Sweden, .
Neville, who picked up a calf injury last week, had earlier sat out the first 15 minutes that were open to the media of their session at the Cologne stadium hosting Tuesday's game.
"He's out. "We hope he will be okay for the next game but we are not sure about that."
England are already through to a second round game this weekend against either hosts Germany or Ecuador after an opening 1-0 win over Paraguay and need only a point to finish top of the group.
Neville's place at right back will almost certainly go to Jamie Carragher, who deputised for him on Thursday in their 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg.
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