rooney will keep his captainship
wayne Rooney will not be stripped of the England captaincy and his future involvement in Gareth Southgate’s squads will not be affected by the late-night drinking incident at The Grove Hotel during the last get-together.
The Rooney camp is understood to have now received assurances from the Football Association that the 31 year-old is not going to face any disciplinary action – the same applies to Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson who went to a lap-dancing club in Bournemouth on the evening off – and is not being investigated for his behaviour
The FA have nevertheless launched an investigation, through technical director Dan Ashworth, to ascertain which members of the organisation’s staff were out drinking into the early hours of the morning with Rooney who subsequently issued a public apology after pictures emerged.
The incident was exposed in The Sun newspaper with subsequent reports that Southgate, who is to be confirmed as England manager early next week, had ordered Rooney to go to bed. Southgate did not specifically do this – although he did see the striker and had expected him to be returning to his room rather than stay up until 5am.
Southgate will have to address the issue of Rooney and player conduct at his first press conference but he does not have to decide whether to select the player until next March – when England face Germany away, in a friendly, and Lithuania at home in a World Cup qualifier. If Rooney is not selected he has been assured it will be because of form and fitness and not because of his conduct. Nevertheless, Rooney does have a battle on his hands to remain in the team for club and country.
He scored the opening goal during Manchester United’s 4-0 Europa League win over Feyenoord on Thursday, which made him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in European competition with 39 goals, and later insisted he did not “step foot into the wedding” which was taking place at the England team hotel. Rooney had already rounded on his critics for wanting to “write my obituary” and claimed the media reaction to the incident had been “disgraceful”.
The Rooney camp is understood to have now received assurances from the Football Association that the 31 year-old is not going to face any disciplinary action – the same applies to Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson who went to a lap-dancing club in Bournemouth on the evening off – and is not being investigated for his behaviour
The FA have nevertheless launched an investigation, through technical director Dan Ashworth, to ascertain which members of the organisation’s staff were out drinking into the early hours of the morning with Rooney who subsequently issued a public apology after pictures emerged.
The incident was exposed in The Sun newspaper with subsequent reports that Southgate, who is to be confirmed as England manager early next week, had ordered Rooney to go to bed. Southgate did not specifically do this – although he did see the striker and had expected him to be returning to his room rather than stay up until 5am.
Southgate will have to address the issue of Rooney and player conduct at his first press conference but he does not have to decide whether to select the player until next March – when England face Germany away, in a friendly, and Lithuania at home in a World Cup qualifier. If Rooney is not selected he has been assured it will be because of form and fitness and not because of his conduct. Nevertheless, Rooney does have a battle on his hands to remain in the team for club and country.
He scored the opening goal during Manchester United’s 4-0 Europa League win over Feyenoord on Thursday, which made him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in European competition with 39 goals, and later insisted he did not “step foot into the wedding” which was taking place at the England team hotel. Rooney had already rounded on his critics for wanting to “write my obituary” and claimed the media reaction to the incident had been “disgraceful”.
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