A smiling Wayne Rooney resumed training at England’s base camp in southern Germany on Thursday, giving the side a huge boost ahead of their World Cup campaign.
The 20-year-old striker was put through his paces with his teammates and showed no ill effects in his first run-out since jetting back from Manchester after being given the green light to play in the World Cup.
Rooney was seen stretching, jogging, skipping and kicking the ball on a hot day in the tiny village of Buhlertal, just outside Baden-Baden, ahead of England’s opening match against Paraguay in Frankfurt on Saturday.
The talismanic star returned to the Black Forest on Wednesday evening after a day trip to Manchester for a scan on his injured right foot, which confirmed that he would be able to play in the tournament at some stage.
Rooney’s own confidence in his ability to repeat the kind of impact he made as an 18-year-old at Euro 2004 was reflected in a gung-ho declaration on his return.
”The big man’s back in town,” he was quoted as saying by reporters based in the team hotel.
Exactly when he will be ready to play remains unclear, although England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has always been hopeful of having him available from the start of the knockout stages.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes Rooney’s broken metatarsal is insufficiently healed to permit his participation in the World Cup, but in a statement the club said there was a ”good chance” he would be available after the group stages, should England qualify.
However, they still struck a cautious note.
”He is now in the care of the England medical team. The expert independent medical view is that Wayne has a good chance of being fit after the group stage,” the club said on its website.
”At that point, the expert independent medical view is that his participation in the tournament will require very careful assessment in order to address his suitability, as he will not have had the opportunity to play in less demanding games.”
The statement backed up widely held predictions that Rooney will not play any part in England’s group B matches, against Paraguay on Saturday and then Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden.
The fact that he could play at all seemed highly unlikely after he broke a metatarsal bone in his right foot while playing against Chelsea on April 29.
His return to the England camp came at the end of a hectic day that began with an early morning flight on Wednesday from Germany.
The midday scan only took 25 minutes to complete, leaving Rooney with a free afternoon, which he spent at the family home of his girlfriend, Coleen McLoughlin, in his home city of Liverpool.
Rooney returned to the clinic in the early evening and was cloistered there for two hours as discussions continued between the England team’s Swedish doctor, Leif Sward, and Manchester United’s top medic, Tony Gill.
An official from Fifa, who had been primed to mediate between club and country in the event of a dispute over the interpretation of the scan, was also present.
United have appeared reluctant to risk Rooney playing in the World Cup, but the player himself has always been desperate to play, and his youth and fitness appear to have enabled him to make an odds-defying recovery from a serious injury.
Rooney has been training and kicking a football since the end of last week and his energetic approach to England’s workouts had triggered a surge in optimism that he would be given the all-clear to play.
The broad grin of FA executive director David Davies as he accompanied Rooney out of hospital also spoke volumes about the importance of the Liverpool-born star for England’s quest to win the World Cup for the first time since 1966. — AFP
