WAYNE Rooney's desire to impress both Manchester United and Chelsea could make him more dangerous than usual for Scotland tomorrow night, according to national assistant manager Mark McGhee.

Rooney has appeared in only one of Manchester United's eight pre-season games because of a shoulder injury and general fitness issues, and his ability to play to his best tomorrow is open to question. But the 27-year-old trained with the England squad yesterday morning and will play at least part of the 90 minutes against Scotland. Rooney has told United manager David Moyes he wishes to leave and he could yet join Chelsea despite two offers having been already rejected.

Roy Hodgson, the England coach, said Rooney was in the right state of mind to be selected against Scotland and that he had done well in an intense training session at their St George's Park complex yesterday. "His mind is fine. He can compartmentalise club and country, which I expect from all players. There's no doubt in my mind that he's not suffering from a physical injury."

McGhee lavished praise on the United man and said Scotland must be prepared for the possibility of a highly-motivated Rooney having a point to prove both to Moyes and Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager. "The most important thing is that we prepare ourselves to play against Wayne Rooney," he said. "Rooney is one of my favourite players. He is a fantastic player and if he steps out on that pitch, he will want to prove to all sorts of people that he is the player that we all think he is. That is a danger. If all we are interested in is getting a result then I hope Wayne Rooney doesn't play, because when he plays he makes them a better team. If he does play, and we beat them, then it will make it all the sweeter."

Revealingly, this has been one Scotland friendly for which there has been no spate of call-offs. The only withdrawal so far has been Liam Bridcutt, the Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder, who has a hip problem. Manager Gordon Strachan still has 28 men in his squad and he and his backroom team consider 16 of them as realistic contenders to start the match tomorrow. The players trained at Watford's facilities yesterday morning and were visited during the session by Gianfranco Zola, the Sky Bet Championship club's manager.

The English media focus has been heavily on Rooney rather than the wider context of the first "Auld Enemy" game for nearly 14 years, but McGhee dismissed a suggestion that the game meant more to the Scottish players than to Hodgson's. "I know your Terry Butchers and people like that always wanted to beat Scotland badly and I think if you speak to Wayne Rooney or Frank Lampard they will want to beat Scotland just as much. In the scheme of things, there isn't the same amount of hype around the game that there might have been in the past, but from the players' point of view I think the majority of them, especially the more seasoned pros, will want to beat Scotland."

The game is Scotland's first since the 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat of Croatia in Zagreb, which came too late to salvage hopes of qualifying but did much to transform the mood around the national team. "What we are determined to do is repeat the level of performance," said McGhee of that remarkable qualifier. "I think we feel that if we can do that, then who knows? I remember the week before the Croatia game and the feeling I had in Glasgow with everyone, including many of the press, was that we were going to Croatia to get an absolutely mauling.

"There is a confidence that we are going to be much more difficult to beat than we might have believed before the Croatia game. Everyone thinks the worst that is going to happen is that we are going to be really hard for England to beat. That's an improvement. And if we can go and do better, then fine."