Roy Hodgson has denied claims that Wayne Rooney was not fit enough to play in England's Euro 2012 quarter-final defeat to Italy.

The former West Brom boss admitted, however, that the side had expected too much from the Manchester United forward when he returned from his two-match suspension.

"I think we put a lot of expectation on him," Hodgson told reporters. "When he missed the first two games we were all believing that what we need to do now [is to] get to the third game and Wayne Rooney will win us the championship. That maybe was too much to ask of him.

"He certainly tried very hard, but he didn't have his best game [against Italy]. I think he would admit that. That might be down to a number of factors, but I don't think that fitness itself was a particular factor.

"His running stats in the training sessions and the games were actually very good."