Roy Hodgson believes Wayne Rooney is capable of playing anywhere but indicated he has no plans to use him in midfield for England.
Rooney has been used in a deeper role at Manchester United this season to allow Louis van Gaal to include the likes of Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao in his team, but the 29-year-old has not scored since Boxing Day.
Rooney has not even registered an effort on target since the goalless draw with Tottenham on Dec. 28 -- with three blocked shots and one off target since the turn of the year -- and Van Gaal has acknowledged that his impact in front of goal has been limited by his new role.
Hodgson maintains that his captain has played well in midfield, saying he did an "exceptional job" in the 1-1 draw at West Ham at the weekend, but -- even if Harry Kane may now come into the team -- the England boss still feels Rooney can best serve his country in an attacking role.
"Wayne is the sort of player who could play anywhere," he said on The FA's official website. "You couldn't surprise me if one day he played right-back and did well. That's the player he is -- he's a very good footballer.
"We'll only use him on the pitch where it suits our team best and I don't know that will be centre-midfield. It's where he plays for Man United because they've got other players and they feel that's where he does the best job for them, and I fully respect that, but at the moment I don't necessarily think that will be his best place for us.
"I don't have any immediate plans to play him there, but who knows? I will never say never."
He added: "He's a goalscorer. One always likes to see goalscorers in a position where they can get into the box and around the box.
"If you've got several goalscorers and you can afford to use one of your goalscorers a bit further back, fine, but he's our top goalscorer, so I hope he continues to score goals for us."
Hodgson dismissed the notion that Rooney could struggle if asked to perform different roles for club and country.
"If you are an England player you do have to accept that you wear two hats," he said. "You have got to be prepared to leave one hat at home and put the other hat on.
"If you can't do that you are never going to be any good for me as an England player, or any other manager for that matter, because we need people who can give us the focus we need to win our matches.
"We can't demand they wear those hats when they go back to their clubs. We have to quite happily accept when they have done their 10 days with us, they put that hat away and they put a new one on.
"They really do have to have that ability to cross the line and say: 'This is about England and my job now is to do my job for England.' I have had no complaints about the players being able to do that, but it is something we constantly work on and constantly preach because it is important."