Wayne Rooney will travel with England to the World Cup despite being told that he will be unable to resume full training before June 14 at the earliest, four days after his country’s opening match.
A scan on the Manchester United forward’s broken foot confirmed the initial prognosis that he would need about six weeks to recover from the time that he suffered the injury, playing against Chelsea on April 24.
But United said in a statement on Friday that the player would only be given a green light to resume playing depending on the results of another scan the club has scheduled for June 14, in Manchester.
If that examination confirms a full recovery, Rooney could still be available to play for England in the knockout stages of the tournament and head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson confirmed that he would take the player to Germany on that basis.
Rooney will continue to work on his rehabilitation with United’s medical staff until June 5, when he will fly out with the rest of the squad to Germany before returning for the second scan nine days later.
”This is very encouraging news,” Eriksson said. ”I’m looking forward to Wayne joining up with the rest of the squad on Sunday. The fact that he is flying out to Germany with us will give everyone a huge lift.”
The Swede added: ”I spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson today [Friday] and we had a really good conversation. Despite all the speculation, there has been a very positive dialogue with Manchester United all along.
”We are very grateful for the support that they have given Wayne and the England team.
”We’re still hoping that the second scan will show further improvement and that Wayne can play his part in the World Cup.”
United’s statement said there had been no change to their initial assessment of how long it would take Rooney to recover, confounding optimistic reports that the player could be training by the time England face Paraguay in their opening match on June 10.
”His injury is progressing as expected and we now hope to gradually increase his rehabilitation as planned,” the United statement said.
It added: ”A further CT scan will be performed in Manchester on June 14 to assess further his recovery and a decision will then be made as to whether he can begin to participate in football training.” — AFP
