IT might not seem like much, but England have been given a tremendous lift by the reduction in Wayne Rooney’s international ban.

Rooney himself admitted it was stupid to have kicked Miodrag Dzudovic in last October’s final qualifier and so he can count himself lucky that UEFA have looked kindly on his case.

He was initially given a three-match ban for the red-card incident but, after a hearing last Thursday attended by the player and England boss Fabio Capello, that was reduced to two,

It means he is available for England’s final group match of Euro 2012 against Ukraine – and that could be crucial.

Firstly, the decision ends any doubt about whether Rooney should be included in the squad for the tournament.

That is a definite ‘yes’ without even thinking about it.

Even though I still think England should have enough quality to reach the knockout stages without him, he will now be there should he be needed in the later stages of the qualification process.

If we are struggling for any reason to get through and, say, need a win in the final group match against the joint hosts, who better to have ready to come back into the side than Wayne Rooney – the best player in the country.

That’s why it’s such a massive bonus for Capello and every fan to have the ban reduced from three to two matches. I just hope now that Wayne can behave himself.

He needs to stay out of further trouble in internationals because the third match is suspended for four years – and will only kick in if he is sent off in another competitive European international.

The Manchester United striker has also agreed to spend a day supporting a UEFA community project – and I think that’s an excellent condition to what is a more fitting punishment.

Credit to the FA, too, for sending Rooney, the manager and a team of four lawyers – including a QC – to UEFA to support the appeal.

It was quite a team – Adam Lewis was the QC, who has previous experience of chairing Rugby Football Union appeal hearings, there was a Swiss sports lawyer, the FA’s own internal solicitor James Bonnington and a guy from their external lawyers, Charles Russell.