Wayne Rooney may have been acknowledged as PFA Player of the Year but it’s his battle with fitness that’s grabbing more headlines and concern today. Although Alex Ferguson has indicated that Rooney may have played his last game for United this season, there are conflicting reports today suggesting that the United boss wants to have a fully fit squad to take to Sunderland next weekend; that could include Rooney.
United assistant boss Mike Phelan has been talking of “hoping” to have him back in contention for next week and offered a more optimistic view of the groin injury that kept him out of the victory over Spurs at the weekend…
“We have to wait and see how Wayne responds to treatment…This is a groin problem that is possibly due to a little bit of fatigue.”
Rooney himself has pledged to be back in action only last night on receiving his new gong…
“I’m fine. I’ll be all right for the World Cup. In fact, I’ll be ready for the Stoke game.”
It’s unlikely that Rooney’s Fantasy owners will take that risk after being stung so severely at the weekend. The Fantasy Premier League emergency captain saved some from disaster by switching conveniently to Frank Lampard but for others, Rooney’s absence hurt considerably at this late stage in the season.
Personally I’m puzzled as to how the Rooney absence was not flagged up in the build-up to the Spurs game. Call me naive but surely Rooney’s fitness must have been on the agenda for the press conferences having seen the striker subbed at City the previous weekend? And yet, Thursday and Friday brought no confirmation or otherwise that Rooney was fit and well for the Spurs game.
According to Ferguson, Rooney suffered the injury in training on Thursday and although the United boss intimated at “one or two” doubts in his conference reports on Friday, no journalist present thought to link this or report a possible doubt on Rooney’s fitness.
I find that rather baffling to be honest – was Ferguson not quizzed further? Was Rooney’s name not even mentioned? How did Ferguson avoid the question? Surely if he had answered “he’s fit for Saturday” it would have been news and reported. If he’d have answered “he’s a doubt” it would have been news and reported. If he’d have answered “no comment” it would have been news and reported. Either Ferguson wasn’t questioned on Rooney’s fitness or his reaction was kept out of the press conference reports for one reason or another. It seems the first suspicions were aroused when the striker was pictured spectating a United under-18 match on Saturday morning.
It’s a puzzle we will likely never have the answer to but for me, it certainly puts a cloud over just how much we can gather from reports from Ferguson’s press conferences from now on.