Rooney handed second Derby trial

The 19-year-old is set to feature in their reserve game with Sheffield Wednesday this week.

“Macclesfield are preparing for their game on Saturday and I would have thought John would be in the squad for that. We’ll see if we can get him back for the reserve game next Wednesday,” Clough told the Derby Evening Telegraph last week.

“We have to see him in a game now, but he has looked OK in training. We can see he has got something.

“He is only 19, so we will have to assess if he is going to be knocking on the door next season if we take him.

“Is he as good as Ben Pringle and some of the younger players we have got coming through, like Jeff Hendrick and Ryan Connolly?

“We will try to assess that in a game next week.”