England need a point against Ukraine, in what is sure to be a hostile environment for the away team when they take on the hosts at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk. Enter - Wayne Rooney.

The Manchester United striker will be desperate to prove his worth after missing the first two games through suspension. There is no better platform than the final game in a group with a quarterfinal place at stake.

Rooney made his international breakthrough in this tournament in 2004 as an 18-year-old. However, ever since that tournament, Rooney has not scored a single goal for England in a major competition. The 2006 World Cup was a complete and utter disappointment, culminating in the red card that saw him sent off against Portugal. England missed out on qualification for Euro 2008 and Rooney failed to score a single goal or make any impact in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Rooney is 26 years old now. There is no guarantee he will be there for England in 4 years time, when he will hit the ripe old age of 30. England have not been given a prayer in this tournament, but in Rooney they have a game-changer, in the mould of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. If England win and come out as group winners, they have the possibility of avoiding Spain. France play Sweden and will be desperate to avoid the World and European champions. The team that finishes second will take on Spain while the group winners face Italy, not exactly a walk in the park either.

"We have to be confident going into the Ukraine game," Rooney said. "We've got big belief in ourselves and know we're good enough to get through the group stage. Beyond that, you have to play the best teams if you want to win tournaments and how much of a boost would it be for us if we did play Spain and beat them?

"How much confidence would that give us? You have to play those teams to win tournaments whether it's quarterfinals, semis or final, we have to just cope with that.

"But before the tournament started I said a country like ours needs to be in there with a shout of winning major tournaments and I firmly believe that.

"We've got the squad, we're more organised than we ever have been as long as I've been in the squad, and we are hard to beat now. If we keep doing that and keep working hard then there's no reason we can't go really far and be in with a shout of winning it."

Rooney will most likely start with Manchester United team-mate Danny Welbeck and the strike duo will be keen to continue banging in the goals. However, the former Everton player has not played a single game for over a month and the Rooney you see for United is not the one that usually materialises for England.

That trend will have to change if the man from Merseyside wants to put himself up there with the world's best. The expectancy of an entire country on your shoulders can be a tremendous burden to carry, as shown so often by Messi and Ronaldo. Rooney will be hoping it will spur him on towards greatness rather than into oblivion.

"If you look back through the years, if you take Pele for example, he was capable of producing his very best football when it really mattered to help Brazil win World Cups," England coach Hodgson said.

"Let's hope that Wayne Rooney can start to do that for us on Tuesday night and then, if we win, who knows? If Wayne can produce his best then he can help us keep going even further."

No pressure then; play like Pele and inspire England to their first ever European Championship.

Quite simple, really, isn't it.