Rooney ready to play - Mourinho

Wayne Rooney is ready to play against Arsenal on Saturday, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has said.

Rooney captained England in the 3-0 defeat of Scotland but missed the friendly against Spain on Tuesday because of a knee injury.

He was subsequently forced to apologise after images emerged appearing to show him drunk while at a wedding at the team's hotel on Saturday night.

Despite the controversy Rooney has trained as normal following his return from international duty and Mourinho insists he is available to face Arsenal at Old Trafford.

"He has trained like everybody else. He wants to play like everybody else," Mourinho told his pre-match press conference.

"What happened with the national team happens with the national team. What happens there I don't interfere with. I don't like to comment.

"Sometimes they come back stronger than they were before if something good has happened. Other times they come back injured or frustrated. In this case we know it didn't go well.

"The national team is another chapter and it's closed now until March."

Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw were criticised by Mourinho for missing the win over Swansea before the international break.

It subsequently emerged that Smalling had been ruled out because of a broken toe but the United manager was in no mood to answer questions about his fitness at Friday's press conference.

"Chris Smalling you cannot ask. You have your sources. You trust them. You believe them. You did that for 15 days. Now you are not going to ask me to comment on your trusted sources," Mourinho told reporters.

"You wrote, spoke, comment, criticised. I don't say a word. You do the big headlines."

When asked about Shaw, Mourinho replied: "Luke Shaw has worked well in this period when we had a very small group. He is ready to play - I don't have any problem. He is a young player with potential. He has things he needs to learn. He has my confidence. We have five games in three competitions. He will play (at some point)."

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