Wounded Rooney is McClaren's Gazza

Long before McClaren took charge of an England side who always seem to be missing the injury-prone Wayne Rooney, Graham Taylor experienced a similarly frustrating problem - one that would prove as costly for the national team as it was for a much-derided coach.

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Of the 38 games that represented Taylor's difficult tenure, Paul Gascoigne played only 11. Not exactly what the manager needed when he was trying to build on that World Cup semi-final appearance in Turin under predecessor Bobby Robson - and a major factor in his failure to guide England to the United States four years later.

There are a variety of reasons why McClaren has struggled in his first season at the FA, but Rooney's absence for six of the 11 games he has so far contested as coach has hardly helped.

It will be nine in 14 before Rooney makes his anticipated return to action - even if, as one source at Manchester United suggested yesterday, it could be four rather than eight weeks - by which time England may have dropped yet more European Championship points in the games against Israel and Russia.

'They should be able to cope without him for those two games,' said Sir Alex Ferguson, which would suggest the Scot has not seen too much of England in the last year.

How McClaren must curse his luck. Not once has he been able to partner Rooney with Michael Owen, who missed most of last season with the knee injury he suffered during last year's World Cup. Not once has he even come close to being in a position where he could pick the team that he only ever sees in his dreams.

As well as Owen, Owen Hargreaves missed crucial games last season, as did Gary Neville, Ashley Cole and Aaron Lennon. For all their efforts to fill the void too often left by the premier striker pairing, Peter Crouch, Andy Johnson, Jermain Defoe, Darren Bent and David Nugent are not good enough.

With confirmation of Rooney's misfortune came some more positive news for McClaren. Owen appeared in a practice match for Newcastle on Monday night and McClaren could certainly use him at Wembley next month.

But the situation is desperate as the head coach prepares to name his first squad of a hugely important season this Friday.

Strikers are in short supply - Crouch is suspended for the home game with Israel on September 8 - and so are centre halves, with John Terry, Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson injured and Jamie Carragher sticking to his decision to leave international football behind.

Micah Richards impressed for Manchester City at the weekend and he might well offer McClaren a solution in his search for a partner for Rio Ferdinand. Hargreaves should be back even if David Beckham is almost certain to miss next week's friendly against Germany.

Beckham did not play for LA Galaxy in Boston on Sunday night, that ankle injury once again reducing him to the role of highly-paid spectator. With Lennon injured, McClaren surely has to give consideration to David Bentley, even if the Blackburn winger did refuse to represent England Under 21s at the European Championships, citing fatigue.

Ferguson spoke to McClaren yesterday and said he could sense the disappointment in his former deputy's voice. No wonder, when McClaren knows he cannot put a foot wrong if his side are going to qualify for next summer's European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.

When it comes to beating opponents who proved surprisingly awkward last season and outwitting a coach as gifted as Guus Hiddink, players as talented as Rooney are precisely what you need.

Rooney, of course, could be back sooner than even Ferguson is predicting publicly. The fracture is said to be clean and privately officials at Old Trafford believe he could be back training in a month. So McClaren could be in a position to select a fit Rooney for that potentially decisive encounter on a plastic pitch in Moscow on October 17.

But predicting just how quickly these injuries heal can be a tricky business. Rooney returned six weeks after a cursing Eriksson watched him collapse to the ground at Chelsea in April 2006, but his form in what remained of England's World Cup campaign - and the difficulties Rooney then experienced - suggested it was far too soon.

'The big man's back in town,' Rooney is said to have declared when he finally walked into England's team hotel in Baden-Baden. But the big man was far from back.

Prior to that, in the wake of the almost identical injury Rooney suffered in the Euro 2004 quarter-final against Portugal, he was out of action for 14 weeks. The latest injury might not be that serious but, for McClaren, it is serious enough.