Wayne Rooney is the right England captain - Roy Hodgson

Wayne Rooney was named England captain in August, the same month he was made Manchester United skipper

England boss Roy Hodgson says Wayne Rooney has the temperament to lead his country as the Manchester United striker starts a three-match club ban.

Rooney saw red against West Ham last Saturday - the sixth of his career.

"People suggested there was a lack of discipline and so on but, in my dealings with him, nothing could be further from the truth," Hodgson said.

"If someone wants to write that Rooney hasn't got the temperament I can't stop them doing it but they are wrong."

Rooney's ban for kicking out at Stewart Downing begins with Sunday's match against former club Everton.

Hodgson added that Rooney, who grew up in the Liverpool suburb of Croxteth, close to previous England captain Steven Gerrard's childhood home of Huyton, shared his predecessor's infectious passion.

"Everyone knows Wayne is not the sort of person, with his Liverpool accent, who is going to be able to stand up in front of a lecture room of people," Hodgson said.

"But he doesn't need to. All he has to do is make certain the players he is talking to understand where he is coming from.

"The great thing with Wayne, as it was with Steven, is the passion that they have for football, for their country and for their clubs.

"They can transmit that passion to a lot of those younger players. They can get their points across. They won't do it maybe quite as eloquently as someone like myself could, but that doesn't matter."

One of Rooney's first acts as skipper was to introduce player-only meetings at St George's Park and the team hotel in Watford.

"Wayne will get the message across and the message will be more powerful coming from him. We want to tap into that," Hodgson added.

Rooney's dismissal was his first for three years.

But it had marked similarities with the previous one, which came when he clashed with Miodrag Dzudovic in the Euro 2012 qualifier in Montenegro. The resulting ban meant Rooney missed the start of the tournament.

The 28-year-old former Everton forward was appointed Manchester United skipper by new boss Louis van Gaal in August and later that month Hodgson confirmed he would captain the national team.

Gerrard retired from internationals after the team's failure to progress beyond the group stage at the World Cup last summer.