England manager Gareth Southgate has revealed that he does not intend to replace Wayne Rooney with a permanent skipper.
The Three Lions' most-capped outfield player called time on his international career last week, leaving the captain's armband vacant heading into a World Cup year.
Southgate has opted to pass the captaincy duties around during Rooney's previous absence from the side and, ahead of the upcoming matches against Malta and Slovakia, he intends to continue doing the same to increase his side's sense of responsibility.
"I'm keen to keep sharing the leadership," he told reporters. "I think we've focused too much on Wayne in particular in the past few years.
"We've got to start building a more resilient group of leaders and start allowing people to take more responsibility. So for me, it's not the most important decision, the most important thing is trying to build the group.
"That way they will be better equipped to react in the right way collectively when we're in pressure situations in games. By just putting one person forward, I don't think we'll build that as a team."
Southgate has a near full group of players to choose from for Friday evening's meeting against Malta, with Tottenham Hotspur full-back Kieran Trippier the only player to pull out after picking up a minor injury.
Daniel Lewis
