Gary Lineker hails Wayne Rooney as England great

Former England striker Gary Lineker has claimed that Wayne Rooney deserves to go down as one of English football's greatest players of all time.

The Manchester United forward is expected to win his 100th cap for the Three Lions in the Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley on Saturday.

Rooney will follow in the footsteps of Booby Moore, Sir Bobby Charlton and David Beckham in reaching his century, and Lineker believes that the 29-year-old belongs in such company.

"He has to rank right up there in the pantheon of English football's finest. He has scored 40-odd goals for his country and has been a consistent performer," Lineker told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It has not quite happened for him in major tournaments for various reasons, barring the first one, where he exploded on to the scene in 2004 and played so well. He has very rarely gone to a major tournament in prime condition. On other occasions the team has not performed that well.

"There is no doubt he is a great player. He is brilliant at finding space and dropping deep. He is a good all-round footballer and scores plenty of goals. He has been a massive scorer for England, particularly in qualifying games."

Rooney has netted 43 times for England since making his international debut in 2003.