Is Wayne Rooney Injury Prone?

Wayne Rooney’s one of those few players capable of pulling out something unexpected. He’s a goalscorer and a creator and his recent form has quite rightly earned him the October Player of the Month Award in the Premiership. But now he’s injured. Again. And in comical circumstances too (unless you’re a United or – especially – an England fan.) According to The Sun (so mountain of salt etc) Rooney was standing around in training, took a step backwards, and got his leg tangled in a piece of metal training equipment. The result is a twisted and bruised ankle that will keep him out for about a month.

So it’s worth asking, fantastic player that Rooney is, is the lad just plain old injury prone? There’s a definite pattern forming to his career, where he hits incredible form and looks absolutely unstoppable but then pulls up injured. Remember how he announced himself to the world at Euro 2004? He was the undoubted star as the teenager led England suddenly looked capable of winning the tournament. But one collision with Jorge Andrade was all it took to break Rooney’s metatarsal and his tournament was over.

Then there was the unforgettable run up to World Cup 2006, when the whole of England waited on another broken metatarsal and Rooney sat in an oxygen tent to try and heal faster. There’ve been all kinds of other little injuries inbetween – with even his lightweight boots taking the blame at one point – and now Rooney’s 2007/8 has already been interrupted by injury twice. First when he collided with Michael Duberry on the opening day of the season, and now this unfortunate training ground accident. So it seems that Rooney, who looks tough as old boots, might have delicate feet.

Maybe it’s the way he plays, anyone with that much skill is always going to draw fouls and badly timed tackles. And he’s brave too, often throwing himself about like a center half. Or maybe it is the boots, maybe he needs to wear something that offers more protection. Another problem is that he’s so important to both Man Utd and England that he’s always stright back in the side and rarely given time to fully heal. It would be a shame if Rooney fails to have the career his talent deserves due to persistent injuries. But at least Man Utd have the injury-proof Louis Saha to turn to this weekend…

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Category: English Premier League