Rooney Battle Hardened After Disappointing Season

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney is ready to put his patchy season behind him and fire on all cylinders for the remainder of the campaign.

Rooney has netted just 11 league goals in 16 starts this season amid a combination of injury troubles and the adoption of the deeper role upon the summer signing of Robin van Persie.

But after a timely return to form against Norwich City on Saturday, and with United still fighting on three fronts during the twilight of the campaign, Rooney promises he's saved the best until last.

"The age I'm at now is the time when most players start to peak, from now and across the next four or five years," he told the Mail.

"Hopefully that will be the case and the team will benefit from that.

"It's been a bit of a stop-start season for me with a couple of injuries, which has been disappointing.

"I haven't played as many games as I normally would by this point in the season, but I feel fresh and ready for that battle until the end of the season."

The England forward will be relied upon to produce his very best form for the visit of Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 second leg on Tuesday.

United have a slight advantage virtue of Danny Welbeck's away goal in the Bernabeu, which while Cristiano Ronaldo cancelled out the effort on the night, could prove pivotal come full-time.

After thrashing Norwich City to go 15 points clear of champions Manchester City at the Premier League summit, Rooney says United are full of confidence for the visit of Madrid.

"Tuesday is two of the biggest clubs in the world," he explained. "It's going to be an exciting night.

"We know Real Madrid is a massive game but this [win over Norwich] was just as big. We wanted to extend that gap at the top and you could see from the team selection by the manager we didn't take it lightly.

"He made us aware this was more important than Tuesday.'"

A victory over old advisory Jose Mourinho will keep Sir Alex Ferguson on track for a second treble, with United's involvement in the FA Cup seeing them host Chelsea this Sunday at the quarter final stage.