Former Aston Villa and Everton star Andy Gray has paid tribute to Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney over the way he has improved his heading ability this season.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Gray wrote: "Wayne has improved dramatically. I heard about 18 months ago that he had started doing a little bit extra in training to improve his technique - and you can see he is reaping the dividends. Now he's playing up top and not in that withdrawn role on the left, he is in the box far more often and he is giving himself far more of an opportunity to score with headers.

"Look at the brilliant header he scored against AC Milan a fortnight ago. He could not have scored that a year ago. It's from practising over and over again. I imagine Wayne has been having someone feed him ball after ball at training - all at different heights - in order to get better.

"I used to spend hours and hours doing that with the coaching staff and it used to help me a great deal. I don't think Wayne has been doing that as much as I did but he's definitely practised. He couldn't have scored all the goals he has otherwise."