England 'less potent' without Wayne Rooney says Hodgson
Last updated on .From the section Euro 2012
England manager Roy Hodgson has admitted his side have suffered from the absence of striker Wayne Rooney, who he described as "world class".
The Manchester United striker serves the second game of his two-match ban when England face Sweden on Friday.
"We have missed him, no question," Hodgson told BBC Radio 5 live.
"He is a world-class player and when we get him on the field we'll be a much stronger and more potent attacking force than when he's not playing."
He added: "When you talk about Sweden, you talk about Zlatan Ibrahimovic and how important he is for them - how he can decide a game.
"Well, we have got one of those [players] in our squad. His name is Wayne Rooney."
Rooney's Old Trafford team-mate Danny Welbeck led the line against France and is likely to do so again against Sweden on Friday.
But Hodgson said the experienced Rooney had been an asset to the squad despite being ruled out of action until the final group game.
"His training has been excellent and his attitude around the place has also been excellent," he said.
"He's been very, very supportive of the younger players so he just needs now to hang on for another couple of days because his chance will come soon enough.
"He's desperate of course that we go far in the tournament because he wants to play in more than one game."
Hodgson, who spent 12 years managing at club level in Sweden, is expecting a big response from their national team when the sides meet, after the Swedes were beaten 2-1 by co-hosts Ukraine in their opening game.
"I always expect a response because they are a big sporting nation and their football team have done so well in so many previous tournaments," he said.
"The result we wanted was a draw because that keeps things a little bit cleaner as far as we're concerned.
"But what we know now is that, irrespective of tomorrow's result, we are going to need a result against the Ukraine.
"It's really bought the third game into focus for everybody in the group, whereas a different result might have lessened that."
Following England's opening 1-1 draw with France the former West Brom boss described the result as a "platform" to build on.
"We have got to constantly be trying to improve our last pass and our last movement to make certain the promise or threat becomes more tangible and leads to a goal or a very clear-cut chance," he said.
