A Blow to the World Cup

April 29th, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

I’m not a huge Wayne Rooney fan and I’m largely indifferent to England, but I am disappointed about the news that Rooney will be out for six weeks with a broken bone in his foot. England is an entirely different team when it has a healthy Rooney and Michael Owen in its lineup. Unfortunately it appears that Rooney will be lucky to recover in time for Germany and there are still questions about Owen’s fitness. It is unfortunate, not because I want to see England win, but because I want to see the best players play at the World Cup. I want to see the powerhouse teams fielding their strongest lineups and squaring off against one another.

Injuries are always a part of the game and they always seem to play a role in the World Cup. Even though I know this to be the case, a part of me feels cheated today. I feel cheated that we won’t get to see England at full strength. I also feel cheated because even though he is young, Rooney will only have so many opportunities to play on the world’s biggest stage and we’ll all only have so many opportunities to watch.

Rooney’s injury isn’t just a blow to England. It is a blow to the World Cup.

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soze

Fully agreed. And even though I hate to say this here goes… if Rooney did not get injured at EC2004 against Croatia, I feel England would have had a very differnt match against Portugal, would have probably won and would have had a good chance at the EC title. The Greeks would have a very hard time against a healthy English team.
http://incadenza.typepad.com/soccer_thoughts/ Evan

soze–Rooney was injured in the Portugal game, right at the beginning.
http://www.sportolysis.com/2006/04/30/rooney-out-english-need-french-inspiration/ Sports: Life Magnified

Rooney out: English Need French Inspiration

The brief statement from the Man U website reads:
He will be out for six weeks.
Well, told you it was brief! To spell it out, 6 weeks is 42 days. The World Cup is 40 days, 12 hours away. Also, 42 days will be an estimate. No one can say for sure how m…
Crno Gorac

If England loose it will just add to the growing list of excuses that the English have prio and post every major tournament. If Rooney hadnt been injured and they ddnt win the title, people would blame the Media and Sven. Now that hes no there (Which means they stil wont win) Theyll have a new excuse once again.
http://trinidadtobago.worldcupblog.org/1/wounded-warriors.html Wounded Warriors – FIFA World Cup 2006 – Trinidad and Tobago World Cup Team Blog

[...] The World Cup injury bug is spreading fast. Australia and England have both been seriously afflicted – although you could argue that the loss of Rooney is a blow to the whole Cup. What will England do without Rooney? Indeed, what would the Warriors do without Yorke? [...]
Chris

Eriksson’s off the hook now. England wouldn’t have won the World Cup with a full strength team but now he can say ‘No Rooney, No Owen, Ashley Cole not fit , John Terry has an injury…’, the press will ease up on him.
http://www.bensefels.de Bense

Wazza. That name says it all. He’s ugly. He behaves like the first human. Whatever, he’d be a sportive lost for the WC, indeed. I just think he’s pretty unsympathic, compared to Owen or Shearer.
Chris

Maradona was an ugly little Hobbit but that didn’t stop him being a football genius.
soze

Evan> True that. My bad. There must have been an injury to England during the Croatia game..I dunno why I though it was Rooney. Either way, the match would have been different with him there.

It still boggles the mind that a football rich country like England cannot pull together a two deep squad in case of injuries.
Razzle

Sure he is skilled but Rooney plays a very physical game compared to Henry, Ronaldinho or Maradona. In some ways he should have seen this coming.
http://referees.worldcupblog.org/ wendall

Is it the same foot he broke during that Portugal game at Euro 04? Really too bad that he might not be at the World Cup. Even if he is declared fit to play he won’t be the same player coming off an injury. Kind of like Beckham when he broke his foot prior to… was it ‘02?

Not only will England suffer from him not being there, but all the hype surrounding his entry onto the big stage will go unanswered.
DT

With Peter Crouch as their main striker, England will come home very very soon.
rahela

roon we need u bak….hope 2 see u play 4 us in da world cup….hope u hav a quick speed of recovery coz we all kno ure a strong lad an wud love 2 play 4 us in the world cup…….cnt wait 4 u 2 cum bk…..cum on rooneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!