Captain Wayne Rooney has warned that the atmosphere created by fans at Celtic Park will be intimidating for England when they take on Scotland on Tuesday night in a keenly-awaited "friendly."
Rooney has been passing on his experience of and admiration for playing at Celtic's home from two Champions League appearances with Manchester United to his international teammates.
"I've played up here a few times, and you know at the start of the game their fans will be really up for it," he said on Monday.
"It will be intimidating if you're not used to it. Not to anyone in particular. Just to the younger ones in general. Everyone knows this stadium, the fans here have a great reputation of making it an intimidating place to come. It was when I first came out here to play, so I wanted to pass on my experience.
"It was inspiring," he continued. United lost 1-0 in 2006 and drew 1-1 in 2008. "I was a young lad. It was a great atmosphere before the game as you came out. It's a stadium with a particular atmosphere you want to experience as a player."
Rooney also admitted that he had once watched Celtic play rivals Rangers from the away end of the Light Blues' Ibrox but denied he might consider a move to the club later on his career.
"I don't know," said the 29-year-old. "You've seen some great players come here and play, the likes of Roy Keane who I played with, but it's not something I'd talk about now. I'm focused on England and Manchester United."
The United striker said he was not expecting a physical battle of the type played between those two Old Firm teams, or even that between Scotland and Ireland last Friday night.
"We have to play the game within the rules," Rooney said. "It'll be a football game. There will be an edge to it, but that's what you expect from this kind of fixture."
Coach Roy Hodgson said he was under no obligation to any club managers to protect players from what is expected to be an intensely-fought occasion. Despite United's mounting injury crisis, manager Louis van Gaal has not set a limit on Rooney's participation.
"I've not been asked by any manager to spare his players," said Hodgson. "Which I appreciate. That's good because, when that happens, it puts you in a difficult situation.
"When you agree to spare one guy's players, you put yourself in a difficult situation because you're not sparing anyone else's. So that's good."
Rooney indicated his preparedness to play the full 90 minutes. "Yes, of course," he said. "It's down to the manager."
Both Hodgson and Rooney are hoping that an England victory to follow a perfect Euro 2016 qualifying record can go some way to masking the pain of the summer's World Cup where defeats to Italy and Uruguay ended the nation's hopes within the opening two matches.
"The World Cup was a real cold shower for us, a real bad moment," Hodgson admitted. "I thought we were doing quite a lot of things that were leading up to see what we'd hope. Then we lost two matches and we've hit a wall, and supposedly we have to start again. I don't think we've started again.
"We did have a massive barrier to get over after the World Cup, because we created that barrier by losing two matches. We erected the fence. But I don't think we started at the WC and have now got somewhere. We'd always been working towards what we're getting today."
"I think the same," said Rooney. "Before the World Cup we were playing well, in good form, then the two games. It was difficult to get over them. We had to try and forget about that as quickly as we could and continue the form we'd shown before, to keep improving. We're doing that gradually. Then we'll take that form into a major tournament."
Rooney said that his friendship with club teammate Darren Fletcher will have to take a backseat until after the final whistle on Tuesday.
"First of all, it's incredible for him to be back playing, to be back in the Scotland team," said Rooney in reference to his United vice-captain's comeback from ulcerative colitis. "It shows the character he is, the type of person he is. Obviously it was a hard moment for Darren and his family and he's come through that with flying colours.
"He doesn't miss a training session. He trains really hard, so I'm really pleased he's managed to come through. He's back fit and ready to play. Obviously, we speak about the game and tomorrow night he's playing for Scotland and I'm playing for England. We're great friends off the pitch, but for 90 minutes we're opponents."
Hodgson was also asked, somewhat mischievously, whether the Scotland job had ever been on his "horizon."
But the much-travelled coach played down the idea that he was interested in succeeding Craig Brown in 2002, as has been rumoured.
"It might have been if they'd have offered it to me," Hodgson said with a cackle. "I've tried in the past to play down those so called linkages, unless a situation has arisen when I've been sitting down being interviewed or offered the job. I'm sure you have the information, and it was correct, but I can't remember too much about it."
