Column Five

This time, the Swede turns nasty

  • The Guardian,
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If the battleplan for the World Cup is half as good as the strategy for keeping Wayne Rooney in the tournament then even Brazil should quiver. Yesterday the full depth of the rancour between England and Manchester United over whether the striker should play became clear, as did the fact that Sven-Goran Eriksson is no longer willing to be dictated to by Sir Alex Ferguson.

In a series of off-the-record briefings it emerged that England believe the United manager has been guilty from the start of exaggerating the seriousness of Rooney's broken foot, and has misled the public with the depth of his pessimism. England have always been confident that Rooney would heal in time and greeted each negative interjection from Ferguson with angry bemusement.

Details also emerged of a furious telephone row between Eriksson and Ferguson on Wednesday, after the result of Rooney's scan became known, which ended with the Scot, on holiday in the south of France, hanging up in a rage. Relations between United and the national side have plunged to an all-time low.

Even if Eriksson's ears are still raw, he did stand his ground. The Swede was adamant again yesterday, delivering a populist soundbite: "I'm doing this in the best interests of Rooney, the England team and 40 million England fans."

He was indifferent merely to Ferguson and the rest of the United hierarchy. Early in his reign Eriksson gritted his teeth when the club withdrew players from the England squad in debatable circumstances, but he has tired of Scandinavian stoicism. The knowledge that he will step down from the post after the World Cup has liberated Eriksson and he has no further use for the compulsively conciliatory behaviour of the past.

Contrary to United's opinion, Eriksson believes Rooney's foot is "fully healed" and he will throw him into full-scale training immediately. There is even a chance he will play in one of the group games, most likely against Sweden on June 20. But tomorrow Ferguson will see incessant close-ups of Rooney sitting among the substitutes for England's opening World Cup game, against Paraguay.

Eriksson believes that the 20-year-old, absent since fracturing the metatarsal on April 29, can recover match fitness quickly and, in his rumbustious new incarnation, does not necessarily defer to medical opinion. With United and the FA at loggerheads, it was the independent medical opinion of Angus Wallace, a professor of orthopaedic surgery, that sent Rooney back to the World Cup. Eriksson ignored the part where Wallace judged Rooney would not be ready to play until the knock-out phase of the competition.

Ferguson must wish they could have got a verdict from Dr Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt, one of the most famous figures in sports medicine, instead of Professor Wallace. "It's a big risk to start too early with such a fracture," said the German. "It can lead to refracturing." Eriksson treats all such talk as scaremongering.

He was content with what he saw when Rooney returned to full training yesterday. The player was scarcely spectacular after such a lay-off but came through a session in which he was not on the end of any coarse tackles. Should Rooney's toe break again, a spate of lawyers are set to come off the substitutes' bench.

The FA have acted properly in terms of football regulations and will happily bring Prof Wallace out to Baden-Baden for another peek at the celebrity metatarsal before Rooney is let loose in a game, but the final decision belongs to Eriksson and the player himself.

If a significantly injured £27m signing is deposited at Old Trafford in a month's time, United could pursue the matter in court. Should United be Rooneyless at the beginning of next season because he has come to harm under England's care, Ferguson may be studying an equally stricken league position and urging the club to take the FA for every penny they have. Intriguing though such a dispute would be, there is, however, no reason to think it likely.

Rooney may just get back in the England side and do well; should that happen, United would be well-advised to maintain a low profile. Chelsea might be the hate figures now, but the Old Trafford club does not get much sympathy. Since United are under the American ownership of the Glazer family, it would be imprudent of them to mention writs during a spate of English patriotism.

Rooney is a prodigy and a large part of the public will be convinced that a great role at the World Cup is his destiny. And Eriksson's fate? By the end of the summer he will have gone, dropping any recriminations from United on to the in-tray of his successor, Steve McClaren.

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