Rooney refuses to call time on England career – ‘I’ve got another six years left!’
Wayne Rooney has refused to call time on his international career following England’s disappointing early World Cup exit, insisting he has unfinished business with the Three Lions.
England’s tournament has come to a disappointing end after only two games, having slumped to back-to-back defeats to Group D rivals Italy and Uruguay.
While there was little expectation on the side ahead of their trip to Brazil it didn’t stop the nation dreaming of World Cup glory, but the side failed to find their best form in the sweltering South American heat and managed to score just two goals.
One of those was netted by Rooney, and the 28-year-old - who is widely considered to be the man to inherit Steven Gerrard’s captain’s armband - said he hopes to add to his first World Cup strike in the coming years.
Asked how much ambition he has left as an England player, Rooney told talkSPORT: “Plenty.
“I feel I’ve still got a lot of years ahead of me for England. I’m not the kind of player to even consider not playing for England, I am really proud to play for my country.
“I never want to pull out of squads, I always turn up and play for England when I am called upon.
“I have no desire whatsoever to stop doing that unless I am told to. I will play for England until I am not selected.
“I feel I’ve got another four or six years left, definitely.”
England head into their final match against the already-qualified Costa Rica on Tuesday with nothing but pride to play for, but Rooney - who said the side "gave everything" to extend their stay in Brazil - insisted the Three Lions will “go out fighting” before flying home immediately after the tie.
"We will go out there fighting, show our pride. But overall we are disappointed and you know it is not a great feeling to go out of the tournament after two games so we want to try and restore some of our pride back.
“We’re really disappointed that we’ve let the fans down and let the country down.
“It’s frustrating because we know we’ve done well enough not to lose both games, but that’s football at the top level, you can get punished.
“We tried to do it the right way, we worked really hard to get ourselves in the right condition for this tournament, but unfortunately we lost two games where we could have easily taken at least a point, if not all three, from both of them.
"We gave everything. We have gone out of the competition but it's not through the lack of trying.
"We tried, we gave our all and this time we didn't succeed, so we move forward. We have some positives coming out of the tournament and hopefully the young players can only benefit from it.”