Which Wayne Rooney Will Return for England? Wayne Rooney's relationship with international tournaments has been a complicated one. It's almost eight years since Rooney consummated that relationship in the purest way a soccer player can, with goals. It could be said that the same time has elapsed since a relationship was evident at all. Since his explosive introduction to the international stage, at Euro 2004 in Portugal, where Rooney became the youngest scorer in the tournament's history with four goals, he has endured checkered fortunes at international level. In 2006, his World Cup campaign was impaired by a metatarsal injury and finished with a reprehensible stamp on Ricardo Carvalho's unmentionables as England was eliminated by Portugal in the quarterfinals. Four years later in South Africa (England didn't qualify for Euro 2008) and Rooney's televised outburst, directed at his own fans, provided the dominant moment of England's most recent World Cup debacle. The image of Rooney's helplessness still lingers heavily in the memory of English soccer, with this month's Time magazine in Europe using an image of the 26-year-old, hands on hips, despondently looking to the turf, for the front of its "The Tragedy of English Football" special section. Now, in England's final group game, Rooney has the opportunity to reverse his major tournament despair. If he doesn't, his Euro 2012 will be defined by an incident that occurred eight months before the competition started. Rooney and England's Football Association used the two-match ban handed to Andrei Arshavin four years ago as a cornerstone of their appeal against the Manchester United striker's initial three-match suspension for a petulant kick aimed at Montenegro's Miodrag Dzudovic in England's final qualifier. Now Rooney must use Arshavin as an example again, this time in aiming to replicate the tiny Russian's impact at Euro 2008 after his suspension, which ruled him out of Russia's opening two group stage matches. In an interview last month, Rooney revealed that his prematch preparation process the night before games consisted of visualizing himself playing well, even going as far as asking the equipment man what colors each team would be wearing to achieve an authentic detail. Having sat out England's tie against France and its impressive comeback win over Sweden, he's had more time than he would have liked to envision what might happen Tuesday against Ukraine in Donetsk. It's difficult to predict which personality will turn out. Two years ago, Rooney arrived at England's boot-camp style base in Rustenburg (he described the daily routine as "Breakfast, train, lunch, bed, dinner, bed") having stepped out of the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford the season before. He was expected to truly establish his quality at international level, and when he recovered from an ankle injury sustained on Champions League duty before the World Cup, England's tabloid press proclaimed that a nation could breath easier. Instead, Rooney lived out the aforementioned nadir of his England career. However, those who doubt Rooney's capacity for big-match pressure need be pointed towards last season's Champions League final, where his equalizer of thundering defiance demonstrated his belonging alongside the brilliance of Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Xavi. As for temperament, the two-match suspension he has served in Poland and Ukraine has been in direct contrast to his regular season conduct, where he collected only two bookings in 43 appearances for United. His conduct while serving his ban over the past two weeks also suggested that the egotism that prompted Rooney to declare "the big man was back in town" upon his late arrival at England's 2006 World Cup training camp has disappeared. Forgiveness is afforded to Rooney in the knowledge he is England's most accomplished and potent threat. His talent is unquestionable, but unfortunately that's about the only aspect of his life that hasn't been subject to scrutiny since his emergence as a teenager at Everton more than a decade ago. After his infamous decision to threaten United over contract demands with a very public transfer request, Rooney's mentor, Alex Ferguson, reportedly warned him not to blindly follow the Paul Gascoigne comparison bestowed upon him by so many. Gascoigne, who sabotaged his career through alcoholism and reckless public behavior, will always be remembered fondly by England fans for his performances at Euro 1996, where the hosts came within a penalty shoot-out of the final. For this month only, perhaps the man known to his teammates as Wazza could do worse than picture himself as Gazza in his prematch visions. Graham Ruthven is a frequent contributor to the Goal blog.