Rooney's knee injury could rule him out of contention for Euro 2016

The 30-year-old striker damaged knee ligaments during the 2-1 defeat at Sunderland earlier in the month and Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has revealed that Rooney has been forced to wear a protective brace.

The fear is if that doesn’t work then surgery would be the next step placing Rooney’s immediate future of helping both club and country for the rest of the season and during the summer in jeopardy.

Even if the brace stabilises the troublesome knee Rooney is expected to be out of action for at least another month.

The worst case scenario that he has to go under the surgeon’s knife would be a nightmare for both Van Gaal and England boss Roy Hodgson.

In any case Rooney is renowned to need games following a period out with injury to regain his top form leaving him in a race against time for both club and country.

Van Gaal said: “He has a brace now and he has to wear it for two and a half more weeks then we have to look again so I cannot say anything about that now. Now he is resting because of the brace.”

Rooney looks like he will definitely miss the two prestige friendlies at the end of next month against world champions Germany and Holland.

In any case, Van Gaal insisted, Manchester United will be placed first in any recovery schedule.

Asked if the Old Trafford skipper would be ready for the Three Lions double header, Van Gaal replied: “No, he has to first be ready for us not the English team.”

Rooney has a history of injury heartbreak surrounding major international championships. As a precocious 18-year-old he limped out of the 2004 European Championships in Portugal with a broken metatarsal at the quarter-final stage.

Six weeks before the 2006 World Cup finals he again broke a metatarsal which affected his form in Germany while four years later he damaged his ankle in March and wasn’t able to reach any heights in South Africa 2010.

A suspension forced Rooney to miss the opening two games of the 2012 European Championship finals.