Cape Town – England striker Wayne Rooney will be among players rested for Manchester United’s tour of South Africa and China next month, according to reports in the English press.

The Daily Mirror first reported on Friday that Rooney -- currently holidaying in California with his wife Coleen after the national team’s exit in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 to finalists Italy – as well as England colleagues Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck and Phil Jones, will stay behind for a pre-season conditioning programme instead.

Also likely to give the safari a miss will be Frenchman Patrice Evra and Portugal’s Nani.

The Red Devils play AmaZulu in Durban on July 18 before shifting to Cape Town Stadium on July 21 to take on Ajax Cape Town – well over 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the second fixture.

Rooney was suspended for England’s first two matches at the European Championships, and then produced ordinary performances against Ukraine and Italy.

He represented England at the 2010 World Cup on our shores, but also failed to catch fire then and played in the turgid 0-0 draw against Algeria, also at Cape Town Stadium.

But United are likely to still have in their tour ranks names like David de Gea, Rio Ferdinand, Anderson, Dimitar Berbatov, Chris Smalling, Ji-sung Park, Nemanja Vidic and the evergreen Ryan Giggs.