Rooney snores through World Cup draw

London: While England was gripped by the World Cup draw, the man who could make the difference to the nation's hopes in South Africa was fast asleep.

All eyes were on Cape Town as David Beckham played his part in the live draw for next year's tournament, but Wayne Rooney admits he snoozed through it all. "I was actually asleep until 10 o'clock," said Rooney, who was with his Manchester United teammates in a London hotel ahead of Saturday's game at West Ham. "We got to the hotel about 5pm and I laid down on my bed to watch TV. I fell asleep and didn't find out what the draw was until five hours later."

The striker, who has no doubt had some sleepless nights after becoming a father last month, was happy to discover England had drawn the United States, Slovenia and Algeria. He said: "It was a good draw. The US are a good team. I saw them beat Spain in the Confederations Cup on telly and that'll be the difficult game for us.

"But we should win the other two. We need to respect those teams but it could have been worse."

England open their campaign against the United States, ranked 14th in the world, just five places behind England.