"Scared is not the right word in football but they will be worried.
"I think opponents don't want to hear that Wayne Rooney is going to start. He can do so many things.
"Everyone wants to see Rooney in an England shirt.
"Even if you support Manchester City."
More quotes in the Indie
"When you talk about Wayne Rooney, nothing surprises me. I'm not saying that other teams are scared of him - that's not the right word, but they will be worried.
"You always have to take a lot of care of him. I don't think we should expect too much of him. Don't expect him to solve everything himself. I expect him to be a little bit better. What he needs is matches. The touches, the timing, that's what you lose.
"On fire," was how Eriksson described his 20-year-old striker, "and no opponents," he added, "want to hear that Rooney is coming."
The Guardian:
There are times when Wayne Rooney brings to a football field what a kid who has been guzzling too many E-numbers brings to a classroom. The sight of him diving in a muddy goalmouth, goading David Beckham to try to beat him from the penalty spot, even brought a schoolmasterly admonishment from a protective Sven-Goran Eriksson yesterday. "I thought he was going to injure himself," the England head coach reported. "He wanted to show what a good goalkeeper he was but I wouldn't let him."
The same training session, at Cologne's RheinEnergieStadion, had also seen a grinning Rooney slithering along the rain-soaked turf, like a human cannonball, to try to tackle Jermaine Jenas with his head in a game of piggy-in-the-middle. It was a challenge that the Manchester United striker won. "He's tackling anything that moves," sighed the paternal Eriksson. "Nothing surprises me about Wayne. Nothing."