Rooney Watch!

mike65

Well the news we have all been waiting for (ahem) will be released sometime this evening, will it be stick or twist?

I hope the break has'nt healed quite enough and the England medics are strong enough to stand firm if thats the case. If Rooney is'nt there Defoe gets his chance and the Owen-Crouch front line won't be disrupted by the suspicion that Rooney could be parachuted in under media pressure even if they are doing the business.

Mike.

PHB

It's breaking on reuters now apparently that he is out, but this is not confirmed whatsoever

Necronomicon

Nothing on any of the news stations I've been channel hopping through in the last half hour or so. It could be tomorrow morning as well.
In a way I want him to make it, he's had a superb season and deserves to play in the World Cup. Although, the last thing anyone wants is for him to do further damage.

Lemlin

I hope he makes it. He's one of the best young players in the World and this is the World Cup so he should be there. And at least then we won't have to listen to countless excuses about how England would of won the World Cup if he'd been there.

It really is getting beyond bearable now though. Sky Sports News is on Rooney watch 24 hours a day and even the terrestrial channels like ITV and BBC are constantly on about it.

Let's just get a yes or no answer and get on with it. I'd say the rest of the team are well peeved off by now that the entire limelight has been taken off them but that could always be an advantage.

Jonny Arson

Not only would it be a major loss for England but it would be a major loss for the World Cup if he is ruled out. In the pictures I seen on TV he looked quite sharp and was moving well so I've got alot of hope that he will be grand for the knockouts but they've got to get this 100% right and I'm sure Alex Ferguson will want to make sure of that.

mike65

You just know some South Amercian enforcer is licking his lips at the thought of giving Rooney a damned good sneaky stamp during a tackle.

Mike.

Chucky the tree

If he is given the all clear he still wont make it until the second round. Even then he will be totally off the match pace.

PHB

Yeh, it will be him coming on maybe late last group game, then maybe 60 mins of the quarters, then play fully in the semis and final if they get that far.

Rikand

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5054240.stm

BBC seem to be updating this report constantly..the headline has changed like 10 times in the last 30 mins

RedorDead

Latest from the bbc is that he has been at the hospital for the last two hours and has missed his 8pm flight back to Germany. United lawyers are also understood to have arrived. Doesnt look good for young wayne.

zAbbo

He was smiling and left with some FA guy, so i guess he's going to the greatest show oin earth.

It all good for the ABU's

Dr Galen

its getting ridiculous......world news programme thingy on sky headlines went from the persecution of gay iraqis, the terror suspects in the UK and the Nazi collaboration with French companies to saying.........."we'll bring u up to date on the Wayne Rooney situation as it happens".............madness ha ha

Brando_ie

seems like the young fella is going to make it....

Dr Galen

seemingly he's on aplane back to Germany..........

Rikand

Wayne Rooney has been included in Sven-Goran Eriksson's World Cup squad, BBC Sport understands.

Rooney appears to have won the race to prove his fitness after breaking a metatarsal in his right foot while playing for Manchester United in April.

He boarded a flight back to Germany - which is due to land at Karlsruhe near Baden-Baden at about 2145 BST.

He had earlier spent two hours at a Manchester hospital while doctors studied the results of an earlier scan.

on the bbc website

mchurl

Delighted for the lad that he has made it but i still dont think he will be as effective. He will be no where near match fit but the greatest football show on earth should have the greatest players at it so from that perspective im happy he's going.

Jonny Arson

I'm Delighted!

Mushy

Yeah, im happy he is playing. Great player, wasnt going to watch much of england without him. Shall do so now though. Am very happy for the chap and his uncle( his uncle supposedly put loadsa money on him to play in the 2006 WC finals when he was 12, seems like he shall win that one)

county

great news,what time is the press conference on?

mike65

Oh well I just hope Sven uses him as a super-sub only, if he's fit.

Mike.

WhiteWashMan

feel sorry for defoe tbh.

but good for england, no doubt about it

The Muppet

mike65 wrote:

Oh well I just hope Sven uses him as a super-sub only, if he's fit.

Mike.

He's certainly physically fit, United would not have allowed him go if they were in doubt about that. He's not match fit I suppose but he has a bit of time to sharpen up.

He deserves to display his talent on the world stage I hope all goes well for him.

eirebhoy

Sven say's while he might not play in the the group stage, he's certain he'll play some part. He's now taking qualification for granted.

evad_lhorg

would be funny if they didnt qualify now

elvis2002

They should win the first two games tbh with their B team but there's always a possibility of Trinidad or Paraguay causing a no-score draw or similar draw. They surely cant beat England though. Swedan is their first real battle which I think they'll loose.

Lemlin

This could leave England with a few problems. What happens if Crouch or Owen pick up an injury? All they've got for backup is Walcott unless they change to a 4-5-1 with Gerrard behind the striker or move Joe Cole up front. Hardly ideal.

Sven really should of brought another striker.

eirebhoy

elvis2002 wrote:

They should win the first two games tbh with their B team but there's always a possibility of Trinidad or Paraguay causing a no-score draw or similar draw.

They should beat Paraguay but it's not one that Sven should be taking for granted. They're probably on par with Australia, if not better. Chile seem a pretty decent team and they finished 3 places below Paraguay in the qualifiers. Sven takes too many things for granted, including qualification for the WC.

PHB

England will walk the groups, their problem will be against decent teams who will destroy the midfield pairing of Lampard and Gerrard

Necronomicon

Eriksson has made a bold statement: "Rooney is now injury free".

http://home.skysports.com/worldcup/article.aspx?hlid=393300&CPID=4&clid=114&lid=4161&title=Sven+gives+Rooney+statement

herbieflowers

It's a risk to bring him. If he plays any part it's an even bigger risk. Cynical opposition defenders (esp. South Americans - Argentina quarter-finals?) will be looking to stamp on his foot if he plays. I don't think it will have recovered fully by then.

LostinBlanch

Sven (and the ABUs in the press) are going all out to make sure he plays whatever the prognosis for his future career.

Has anyone seen this from Oliver Holt in yesterdays mirror? I heard about it on Newstalk last night

And there are also things we try not to see. There are things we persuade ourselves we do not believe.

I tried not to see Rooney pull his injured right foot away sharply after he chipped a gentle pass to the England fitness coach yesterday. I tried not to see the grimace on his face.

I tried not to see him struggling towards the end of the session. I tried not to see the unevenness in his stride that started to look like a limp.

I tried not to see the look of impatience on Gary Neville's face when he pointed out that Rooney hadn't actually trained properly with the England squad yet.

I didn't want to believe Neville was just being as brutally honest as he always is when he said plenty of players do what Rooney's doing and that this is the easy part of the recovery.

I tried not to give in to the idea there might be crushing commercial pressures pushing Rooney towards a premature return that could ruin him.

I don't want to believe his presence here might have anything to do with endorsements he and his fiancee might lose if he misses out on the World Cup.

Or that the first book of his multi-book publishing deal might go down the pan if the doctors tell him not to bother catching that plane back to Germany tonight. I don't want to believe that Sir Alex Ferguson might be right and that we've locked this lad into a country's World Cup fantasies and insisted he simply ignore the fact he has a broken foot.

I don't want to believe that even if he does come back to tonight, he won't be fit to take part in the tournament until the quarter-final at the earliest.

And that by then, with only two strikers who have played in the Premiership available for our first four games, we might already have gone home.

As Norman Whiteside has said (quoted on Redissue)

"England will be taking a hell of a risk if they play him before he is completely recovered. If someone recovering from a broken metatarsal comes back when they are only 95 per cent right, the chances are they will suffer a recurrence of the injury or pick up another injury. If there is a weakness in the bone and you are playing a high-impact sport you are running the risk of breaking it again. If Wayne comes back too soon there is also the chance that he will alter his running style to compensate. That would leave him at risk to injuries to other bones, ligaments and muscles because he is not moving naturally."

herbieflowers

The psychological boost for the squad in general must be massive, if nothing else!

masterK

So are we close to hearing the end of the most important news story in the world ever?

Balfa

Lemlin wrote:

This could leave England with a few problems. What happens if Crouch or Owen pick up an injury? All they've got for backup is Walcott unless they change to a 4-5-1 with Gerrard behind the striker or move Joe Cole up front. Hardly ideal.

Sven really should of brought another striker.

You mean if BOTH Owen and Crouch are injured. Otherwise thats what Walcott's for.

leeroybrown

Now there are hints (BBC site) that Eriksson may play him at some stage in the second/third group games. Presumably this would be a gamble to play him back into some match fitness before the latter stages.

eirebhoy

If his injury is 100% healed then I don't see a problem with coming off the bench in the group stage. Playing from the start would be foolish.

Lemlin

Did anyone see Sven's press conference yesterday? Sky had been billing all morning that he was going to give a big press conference and answer questions.

When it came to the actual conference, Sven just arrived and told reporters that he didn't want his squad being asked any more questions about Rooney and that he would give statements if and when they were necessary. Then he walked off.

All you could hear over the microphone was one journalist saying "that's unbelievable". Seems like Sven finally doesn't give a crap about the English media. About time too.

Necronomicon

Sven has been very touchy about Rooney lately. I didn't see yesterday's conference, but the one before that went something a little like:

Sven: First of all, I don't want to answer questions about Wayne Rooney.

Reporter 1: Can we have an update on Rooney?

Sven: No, please, I don't want to answer anymore questions about Rooney.

Reporter 2: Sven, how has this Rooney situation effected everyone?

etc etc. T'was funny!

Lemlin

Necromomicon wrote:

Sven has been very touchy about Rooney lately. I didn't see yesterday's conference, but the one before that went something a little like:

Sven: First of all, I don't want to answer questions about Wayne Rooney.

Reporter 1: Can we have an update on Rooney?

Sven: No, please, I don't want to answer anymore questions about Rooney.

Reporter 2: Sven, how has this Rooney situation effected everyone?

etc etc. T'was funny!

I wouldn't blame him TBH. It is overshadowing their entire World Cup preparation. I'd imagine the players are hugely peeved off about answering nothing but questions about Rooney.

herbieflowers

but at th same time it's taken a lot of pressure that would've been on them otherwise (ie if Rooney wasn#t injured)