Rooney Asked By FA To Clarify Comments About Trying To Injure Opponent Deliberately
The Football Association has asked Derby County manager Wayne Rooney to clarify comments he made about deliberately injuring an opponent back in 2006.
Rooney made the comments in an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday.
The 36-year-old played for Manchester United at the time and made reference to a Premier League game against Chelsea which the Blues won 3-0 to clinch the 2005/2006 title.
Rooney says he deliberately changed boots to injure an opponent and made then Chelsea skipper John Terry his victim.
"We knew if Chelsea won then they had won the league that day," said 36-year-old Rooney.
"Until my last game for Derby, I always wore the old plastic studs with the metal tip.
"For that game I changed them to big, long metal ones - the maximum length you could have because I wanted to try and hurt someone, try and injure someone.
"I knew they were going to win that game. You could feel they were a better team at the time so I changed my studs.
"The studs were legal but thinking if there's a challenge there I knew I'd want to go in for it properly, basically. I did actually.
"John Terry left the stadium on crutches. I left a hole in his foot and then I signed my shirt to him after the game... and a few weeks later I sent it to him and asked for my stud back.
"If you look back when they were celebrating, JT's got his crutches from that tackle."
In 2002, former Manchester United captain Roy Keane was fined by the FA for claiming in his autobiography that he deliberately set out to injure Manchester City’s Alf-Inge Haaland, father of Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.
