WAYNE ROONEY has revealed he hid the injury that should have ruled him out of the 2006 World Cup.
In a stunning admission, Rooney admitted that he was not fit to play in the tournament that ended with his red card as England went out on penalties to Portugal at the quarter-finals.
But the Three Lions’ record goalscorer’s problem was NOT the fractured metatarsals that saw Sven-Goran Eriksson go to war with Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Instead, he explained in the Amazon documentary “Rooney”: “The first training session with the team was the next day.
“We went out on to the pitch jogging and there was a ball by the halfway line.
“I kicked it trying to hit the crossbar and pulled my groin. I had a 6cm tear in my groin which I didn’t report to the physios.”
Eriksson, shown footage of Rooney’s confession, admitted “I didn’t know that.”
And Rooney went on: “I don’t know what the fans will think about it.
“It was naive of course but you want to play, you want to play for your country. I was thinking I will be OK.
“I was never right at that tournament physically. I was getting pain that was non-stop.”
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That pain intensified with the red card for stamping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho.
But even before getting to Germany the focus had been on Rooney’s fitness after he suffered a broken foot in a tackle by another Portuguese player, Paulo Ferreira, in a title decider between Chelsea and United six weeks before the World Cup.
Or so it was thought. However, according to Rooney, Ferreira was not to blame – it was entirely down to the England man himself.
He explained: “I remember the game and I changed my studs and put longer ones in because I wanted to hurt someone.
“Chelsea needed a point to win the league and at that time I couldn’t take it. I changed my studs yes. The stands were legal but they were bigger than I’d normally wear.
“I remember there was a 50/50 with John Terry and I’ve gone right over the ball. Right on the top of his foot he had a big hole and he was on crutches after the game.
I was never right at that tournament physically. I was getting pain that was non-stop.
Wayne Rooney
“But I blame myself for that injury.
“If you look at it back, my front studs got caught in the ground and my foot bent forward so I broke three metatarsals. I blame myself.”
Rooney and Eriksson both recall the battle with Fergie that lasted until the very eve of the tournament.
Eriksson told the documentary: “I was at the game where he got injured – and I thought ‘s***!’
“Sir Alex didn’t want Rooney to go. He told me very straight – you don’t take him. That’s it’s Sven – or I’m going to kill you! Verbally.
“But I said ‘Alex go on holiday. I’m going to take Rooney and we are going to the World Cup, sorry’. And that was it.”
Rooney added: “I remember thinking it was my first World Cup and how could I not try and be there.
“I wanted to do everything I could and I did – I was in oxygen chambers back and forward seeing specialists.
“Man United and England agreed to get an independent specialist in and whatever he decided we would go with.
“He took me out on to the pitch and had a look at me moving. His last test was he just stamped on my foot and asked if it hurt. I said ‘no’ and he said: ‘You’re fit.’”
Rooney has long denied he returned to England hotel in the hills above Baden Baden to declare “the big man’s back in town”.
But the evidence is crystal clear from the footage in the documentary – he said it, all right.
Gary Neville, though, feels his club-mate was never right – and that it all contributed to his stamp on Carvalho.
Neville said: “To play a tournament like the World Cup you’ve got to be at your absolute peak.
“He needed football, he needed games, he needed sharpness, he needed the bank of minutes under his belt and he didn’t have them.
“And then it just becomes that he was frustrated. He couldn’t handle frustration.”
Sir Alex didn’t want Rooney to go. He told me very straight – you don’t take him. That’s it’s Sven – or I’m going to kill you! Verbally.
Sven-Goran Eriksson
Looking back, Rooney said: “I still don’t know how the referee hasn’t given me a foul beforehand.
“And I still don’t know to this day truthfully if I meant to stamp on him or not. I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.
“My head had just just blared out. I don’t know if I meant to do it it or just came down on him accidentally.
“As the game went on I was on my own and I smashed a few things in the dressing room when I went in.
“It was probably the loneliest place I’ve been.
“I remember sat there thinking ‘if we go through I miss the semi-final and potentially the final and if they go out it is my fault’.
“You go to some dark places. You look at yourself and look at the consequences.
“That’s why I like to be alone to get yourself through it because whatever happens from those times, it’s you, it’s only you who can turn it round.
“If you can’t get through moments of heartache, moments of disappointment then you may as well stop because you are going to have them.
“I remember speaking to Ronaldo and saying to him ‘there’s going to be a lot of coverage of what happened. I’ve got no issue with what you done – let’s get ready to go and win the Premier League’.
“I think he was relieved. Other players might have had an issue but I had no issue at all with him. My focus was on Manchester United.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
