Wayne Rooney touched down in Germany with his England team-mates after another day of encouraging progress in his race to be fit for the World Cup.

Rooney trained with Gary Neville and the England physios before flying from Luton Airport to the team's luxury hotel near Baden-Baden.

The Manchester United striker, filmed passing a ball with his broken foot at the end of last week, is thought to have stepped up his recovery programme again on Monday.

Rooney worked more vigorously, striking the ball harder, and plans to go through his paces again with the England medical team on Tuesday before flying back to Manchester for a scan on Wednesday.

Sven-Goran Eriksson insists he is confident Rooney will be fit for at least some stage of the World Cup finals.

The England boss will have a much clearer picture after Wednesday's scan on the metatarsal bone Rooney broke against Chelsea on April 29.

At the time, Rooney was told by United's medical experts that it would be six weeks before he could resume full training.

It will be six weeks on Saturday, the day England play Paraguay in their first game in Group B.

Eriksson expects experienced full-back Neville to have recovered from his hamstring injury in time to face the Paraguayans.

Neville had been expected to train on Monday, after missing Saturday's 6-0 win over Jamaica as a precaution.

The England camp now say he will train properly on Tuesday as the team get used to their new training headquarters in Buhlertal.

John Terry, Ashley Cole and skipper David Beckham all missed today's final session in England because they were nursing slight knocks and niggles.

Terry has a sore knee, Cole has a slight thigh injury and Beckham took a kick on the right ankle against Jamaica.

The Football Association's director of communications Adrian Bevington said the trio should be ready for the weekend.

Bevington said: "This was purely precautionary with all three players.

"Sven fully expects all three to be training this week and available for Saturday's opener against Paraguay."

Eriksson and his team were given a red-carpet welcome at the five-star Buhlerhohe Schlosshotel near Baden-Baden, in Germany's south west.

England flags fluttered, hotel staff wore traditional dress and horn players piped out music as the players stepped from their team bus.

A children's rap-band called Sternfanger, which translates as Starcatchers, then performed a song and hotel boss Michael Caspar welcomed the England party.

Poster-size pictures of the England players decorate the corridors of the idyllic retreat on the edge of the Black Forest.

The players landed at Baden-Baden's modest airport at 5.40pm local time.

Hundreds of fans, English and German, turned up to greet them but only had a glimpse of the players as they were whisked through the tight airport security.

The England party were straight off a plane and onto the team bus, which was parked on the runway.

The bus, red and white with the slogan: "One Nation, One Trophy, Eleven Lions" on the side, then crawled through the crowds and to the team hotel.

Eriksson smiled and waved to fans from his seat at the front and skipper Beckham gave a little wave through the tinted glass.

Beckham and his team-mates had received a good-luck message from England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff before they left Luton.

Flintoff, a guest at Beckham's pre-World Cup party, said the cricketers were all rooting for England to bring the World Cup home.