Wayne Rooney is the overwhelming favourite to be named England's captain today.

Manager Roy Hodgson is expected to announce who will succeed Steven Gerrard as skipper when he reveals his squad for the matches against Norway and Switzerland.

It would be a huge surprise if Rooney was not handed the honour of leading his country.

Following the England retirements of Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, Rooney is the most experienced member of the pool of players available to Hodgson.

The 28-year-old has 95 caps, has just been named skipper of Manchester United and has the blessing of Gerrard.

"He is a natural leader," said the Liverpool midfielder, who led England throughout the first two years of Hodgson's reign.

"Aside from being a top player, who commands respect within the group, Wayne is passionate about representing his country and won't be fazed by the responsibility."

There is a feeling that Rooney is a more mature and respectable figure than the one sent off for petulantly lashing out at Ricardo Carvalho in 2006 and five years later against Montenegro's Miodrag Dzudovic.

He has the respect of Louis van Gaal, who chose him to captain United over Robin van Persie.

Gary Cahill and Joe Hart look to be the other two candidates and either could end up taking the vice-captaincy.

With Lampard, Gerrard and Cole, now out of the equation, Hodgson knows his squad will have a youthful and inexperienced look about it when he names it at Wembley.

Just 10 weeks after England's disappointing performance in the World Cup in Brazil, Hodgson sounds optimistic about the future. He said: "In the final game against Costa Rica when we gave a few young players a chance to show what they could do, I was quite buoyed by that and I have been buoyed by some of the performances in pre-season and early in the Premier League."

Of those inexperienced players used in the 0-0 draw against Costa Rica, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling could miss the double-header through injury, while Ross Barkley is definitely out with knee ligament damage.

Theo Walcott, Jay Rodriguez and Kyle Walker are still recovering from the injuries that kept them out of the World Cup. Glen Johnson is struggling with a thigh injury so could miss out, as may Jon Flanagan (knee) and Kieran Gibbs (hamstring).

With so few options at full-back, it will be interesting to see whether Hodgson calls up Calum Chambers, who has impressed following his summer move to Arsenal, or Nathaniel Clyne, the highly-rated Southampton defender.

After the poor showing in Brazil, the Football Association is bracing itself for potentially the worst crowd for an England match since Wembley reopened when Norway come to London on September 3. Only 17,000 tickets had been sold as of last Thursday.

Five days after the Norway match, England go to Basle, where they play Switzerland in their first Euro 2016 qualifier.