Wayne Rooney may be England's greatest-ever goalscorer, but his future in both the England and Manchester United set-ups looks far from assured after a pedestrian start to the season, with pretenders after his throne.
The Premier League returns this weekend and Rooney will travel to Goodison Park, the ground where it all began for him, as United take on his old club, Everton. The week after that it is the Manchester derby.
He needs an impressive performance in at least one of those showdowns to "kickstart his season", says Jamie Jackson in The Guardian.
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Before the season started, Rooney was unveiled as United's main forward, with bold predictions that restored to his preferred role as centre forward the 29-year-old would rediscover his verve and his scoring boots.
It has not gone according to plan and manager Louis van Gaal may be losing patience. "Eleven matches into the campaign and Rooney's count stands at five goals," notes Jackson, pointing out that only one of them has come in the Premier League.
"Ineffectiveness has been the recurring theme of Rooney's season," he says. The emergence of Anthony Martial has also seen the United skipper pushed back to a number ten position.
"[Rooney's] last action was an unconvincing turn in United's 3-0 humiliation at Arsenal," writes Jackson. "He ended the contest shunted out on the left, as Marouane Fellaini came on and operated in Rooney's trequartista role. His slide from fulcrum to man-on-the-periphery was complete."
To make matters worse, the footballer has lost his penalty-taking responsibilities to Juan Mata, while Martial now provides the wow-factor on the pitch as the influence of Bastian Schweinsteiger grows off it.
Rooney, warns Jackson, has begun to drift towards the margins.
It's happening, too, in the international set-up, claims Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph. "If everyone is fit, is there a place in the starting XI for the captain and England's all-time leading goal-scorer Wayne Rooney?" he asks.
His "experience and his presence" mean he will not be dropped, but there are "quicker, younger and more athletic alternatives, especially if England persist with the 4-3-3 formation they want to take into the finals".
England's best formation would appear to involve Sturridge, flanked by Raheem Sterling and, if fit, Danny Welbeck. With Harry Kane and Theo Walcott on the bench there does not appear to be much room for Rooney.
Even in midfield the claims of Ross Barkley could be greater than Rooney's.
The Manchester United man is a good captain but has "hardly made a compelling case to be undroppable", says Burt. "Maybe it is time for England to be a bit bolder."
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