Michael Carrick predicts Wayne Rooney will relish the chance to knock his former club Manchester United out of the FA Cup on Thursday night.
United go to Pride Park knowing a win will set up a quarter-final meeting with Norwich City at Carrow Road on the weekend of 21/22 March.
Daniel Farke's Norwich side booked their place in the last eight with a penalty shoot-out victory away to Tottenham on Wednesday.
Rooney has played against United twice since leaving the club in 2017 and, having been on the losing side for Everton on both of those occasions, he will be hoping it's third time lucky this time around.
Carrick played alongside Rooney for 11 years at United and praised his former teammate's impact since returning to England from the MLS.
"It will be strange I'm sure for him," Carrick said. "But I'm sure he's relishing it at the same time. You wouldn't expect him to come back and play back in England again.
"He knows the game so well, he's intelligent on the pitch, and he's gone on to lead like he did in his final years at United.
"As one of the older ones in the dressing room with me, he definitely took that role on. Therefore it wouldn't surprise me if he stayed in the game for a long time.
"He was just an incredible talent when he came through, almost freakish in the way he could deal with things and his mentality was incredible."
