Defoe lauds unselfish Rooney

Defoe stole the headlines as England's European Championship qualifying campaign got off to the perfect start with a 4-0 win over Bulgaria at Wembley.

But the match also witnessed Rooney's rebirth as a force on the international stage, the Manchester United star eventually shaking off the cobwebs to have a hand in all four of England's goals.

Rooney was particularly generous in playing in Defoe for England's third and fourth goals, something which did not go unacknowledged by the Tottenham striker.

"It's always nice when you play with a partner and they want you to score the third goal," Defoe said.

"When I was on the second, he said to me, 'Keep going and you'll get the hat-trick'.

"When I did, he was the first one to come over."

He added of his treble: "It's great - what a feeling.

"It's a fantastic feeling, to score for your country, to score a hat-trick and to win the game."

Despite starting together plenty of times in the past, Defoe and Rooney have never before hit it off in such spectacular fashion.

Acknowledging this, Defoe said: "I've always said sometimes it takes time to get things working.

"In training, we played together all week and it's been very good.

"Tonight, he was involved in all my goals - so it was brilliant."

Defoe hobbled off after completing his hat-trick but dismissed any fears of an injury that would rule him out of Wednesday morning's (AEST) qualifier in Switzerland.

"I couldn't even celebrate to be honest, because I got a kick," he said.

Explaining the problem was with his ankle rather than the groin that he postponed surgery on last week, he said: "It's fine. Just a precaution."

He added of cancelling his operation: "I'm glad I didn't have it now!

"It's been a little bit sore to be honest but I've done a lot of work in the gym - a lot of core work - to try to improve it and tonight I didn't get a reaction."

Defoe was also keeping his fingers crossed for Spurs team-mate Michael Dawson, who suffered a freak injury reminscent of Michael Owen's at the 2006 FIFA World Cup when his left leg collapsed underneath him.

"He's on crutches at the minute," said Defoe.

"Hopefully, it's not his knee. Maybe it's his ankle.

"It looked like he was in a lot of pain. I just hope he's all right."

England's dismal World Cup campaign has seen it come under fire from all quarters and there was plenty of empty seats at Wembley.

Defoe said he hoped the win would help England silence its critics but accepted there was still work to do to win over the fans.

He added: "You don't want to take your foot off the gas and get complacent.

"You want to keep it going and make sure you play like that in the next game."