England coach Gareth Southgate has revealed thathe will have no problem making the decision to drop national captain Wayne Rooney if he needs to, according to theMail.
Rooney played in a midfield role for England against Malta on Saturday night, and put in something of a below-par performance in the Three Lions' 2-0 win at Wembley.
Rooney was booed by sections of the crowd in the game and his place could come under threat from Tottenham's Eric Dier for the match in Slovenia on Tuesday night.
However, Southgate has hinted ahead of the game that he's made far tougher decisions than potentially dropping Rooney in his managerial career - notably when he needed to tell Middlesbrough players and close friends that they were to lose their jobs after the club's relegation seven years ago.
He said:"The biggest decision of my career? Making some really close friends redundant - that's probably as big as you can get.
"I've got to make decisions which are right for the team. Whenever you select a team with England, you're going to leave some guys on the bench who are playing every week in the Premier League for their clubs.
Current and former England players were left 'shocked' by the crowd's treatment of Wayne Rooney at Wembley
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"You have to be prepared to do that, that's part and parcel of the job."
Though many have been dissatisfied with Rooney's performance, Southgate insisted that the Manchester United star did the job he wanted against Malta, adding:
"I was very pleased with his performance. I felt the role he was asked to play he fulfilled. He was asked to dictate the game, play with positional discipline.
"He and Jordan Henderson as a pair did exactly as we hoped. Slovenia is a completely different game, we are likely to be playing against a different tactical system and away from home. We have got to assess all of those things with all of the players to pick the right team for that game."
England have a 100% record in their group so far going into match three.
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