MY ACCOUNT
Wayne Rooney said his “judgement was affected” when explaining comments he made about wanting to injure an opponent while playing for Manchester United against Chelsea in 2006.
The Reds Devils’ all-time leading goalscorer, now manager at financially stricken Championship side Derby County, recounted how he changed his studs to the “long metal ones” as he wanted to “hurt someone” when recalling his mindset ahead of the game at Stamford Bridge.
Former Blues captain John Terry, an ex-England team-mate of Rooney’s, later tweeted to say: “@WayneRooney is this when you left your stud in my foot?”, although the addition of laughing face emojis suggested there were no hard feelings.
Rooney has provided an explanation of his comments to the Football Association and said how he believes his mental health was behind his feelings to want to hurt an opponent.
The Derby boss actually suffered a broken metatarsal in that match following a challenge with Paulo Ferreira.
“I think, as I said, I’ve been very open about my state of mind. And as I’ve said, a couple of nights ago, that was a feeling,” he told a news conference ahead of Derby’s Championship clash with Middlesbrough.
“I didn’t go onto the pitch and say, ‘right, I’m going to hurt and injure someone’. That was a feeling I had.
“And obviously, I had a tackle with John Terry, which was a good, honest, 50-50 tackle between two players, no issues, and obviously the FA have asked for my response to that. And I’ve given them my response. So, there’s not really much to say on that.
“I gave them my response yesterday, so they haven’t responded.
“It’s obviously private what I’ve said to the FA, but I’m sure if you look at how I’ve said things on that, I’m sure you’ll have an idea of what I’ve said.
“There’s not really much more to say. I’ve given my response to the FA, as asked, and I’ll wait for what comes back from them.
“I spoke to people to try and help me get through that [period], which was the toughest part really at the start.
“In doing this documentary [‘Rooney’ – the Amazon Prime Video film], I had to be open and honest and some very hard subjects personally for me to talk about.
“I’ve been getting media exposure since I was 16 and I’ve been judged on many things.
“Sometimes it was my own fault, but I wanted to give my point of view of feelings I had, when you’re down and you’re struggling inside. Your judgement is affected.
“Seeing some of the young players’ decisions they’re making over the last couple of years, and seeing them get judged and not knowing what the causes of that is, whether they’re struggling as well.”
