So Sir Alex Ferguson is somewhat less than pleased to hear that Wayne Rooney has been snapped performing bicycle kicks at his first full England training session in Baden Baden (what a great name for a place!) and for once I think myself and Lord Redface are in agreement.

Typical Rooney behaviour to be out for six weeks, have the English nation (never mind his employers at Manchester United who have most to lose financially if he gets injured again) on tenterhooks and then leap back into action in a tabloid seeking way that even Gazza in his prime would have been ashamed of.

While it’s great news for football watchers all over the world that Wayne Rooney is getting himself back into shape and now looks an increasingly better bet to play some part in the proceedings in Germany (unlucky Jermain Defoe), is it really a sensible idea to be performing acrobatic volleys in your first training session when the all important final scan hasn’t even been performed yet?

Time will tell on just how fit Rooney is, by all accounts he was running fast and free on the spot and executing sharp turns which (I’m told) are the main tests of a broken foot such as his but the real test will come in either a practice match or if he makes it, in a real match where the tackles won’t be pulled out of and there will be big, mean defenders just ready to stamp down on that highly prized foot to test out it’s durability.

For now though, maybe he should leave those high aerial balls which are just ripe for a tasty, head high bicycle kick to Peter Crouch to stoop down and chest in. England expects and their expectations are growing by the second as these pictures get out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 10:30 am and is filed under World Cup 2006. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.