Euro 2012 Betting: England drift as Rooney misses group stage

After an agonising wait, UEFA delivered the news that the FA were dreading late on Thursday afternoon: Wayne Rooney will be suspended for three games after kicking out at Miodrag Dzudovic in England's final Euro 2012 qualifier in Montenegro.

The punishment means that the Manchester United man, who scored four times the last time he was involved in the tournament in 2004, will be ruled out for the entirety of the group stage, pending the inevitable FA appeal.

That decision was made in spite of both Rooney and the FA allegedly writing to UEFA to accept responsibility and plead for a more lenient penalty, and has already in the immediate aftermath of the announcement impacted on their odds.

Fabio Capello's side have now drifted to 10.519/2 to triumph in Poland and Ukraine next summer, having been backed at a low of 6.611/2 at one point and been 10.09/1 before UEFA made clear the extent of their disapproval.

Optimists will argue that the Three Lions should be capable of progressing through the first phase without their star man, and that having him enter fresh in the knockout rounds will unnerve rivals, however that stance underestimates the quality of the opposition.

After all, England have only made it into the quarter-finals of the European Championship once in three attempts this century, and that was in Portugal in 2004 when Rooney was in superb form.

The competition has history when it comes to gobbling up big teams in the group stage, so December's draw takes on even more significance, with their likely place among the second set of seeds a positive as Poland and Ukraine will probably be in pot one.

England also revealed on Thursday that they will face Sweden at Wembley in November, which will present an early opportunity for Capello to carry out his plan to use friendlies to figure out how to set up without Rooney.