The Manchester United captain will remain with the squad ahead of their final Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania, with Gary Cahill taking the armband at Wembley

Wayne Rooney will miss England’s Euro 2016 qualifiers against Estonia and Lithuania due to an ankle injury.

The striker has not trained with Roy Hodgson’s squad since they met up on Tuesday, and will not travel with the squad for their match against Lithuania on Monday.

“We didn’t want to risk Wayne Rooney,” said England boss Roy Hodgson.

“The important thing for Wayne is to recover from this minor injury before Manchester United’s next game.”

Chelsea defender Gary Cahill will captain the side in Rooney’s absence as they look to finish their qualification campaign with two victories, while the forward will receive a commemorative golden boot from Sir Bobby Charlton at Wembley on Friday after becoming England’s all-time leading scorer last month.

Roy Hodgson has a number of other forwards at his disposal who may be able to replace Rooney, with Harry Kane, Theo Walcott, Danny Ings and Jamie Vardy also available for both games.

However, Ings is yet to train this week having picked up a knock for Liverpool in the Merseyside derby and was joined on the sidelines by Michael Carrick for Thursday’s session.

Jonjo Shelvey, however, was able to take part after shaking off an issue which had kept him out of training for the first half of the week.

England have won all eight of their qualifiers thus far, scoring 26 goals and conceding just three, and have already qualified for the competition in France next summer.