Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney hopes England are still alive in their Euros group by the time his two-match ban is over.

He says he will be ready for the third group game, against co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk, and he hopes it will see him form an international strike partnership with his Manchester United team-mate, Danny Welbeck.

"I will just prepare myself as if I was playing in those games, so that, hopefully, when I'm called up, I will go and produce," he said. "Hopefully, the lads will win the two games and I'll come back into a winning team.

"I think we (he and Welbeck) can play as a pair. The way he's played this season shows he's getting better and he'll be a better player again next year.

"I feel me and him work well. It gives me the chance to have that bit of freedom to get in the holes and spaces around the box."