Wayne Rooney: ‘I’m only a human being’
Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has pleaded for the chance to play himself back into form.
The 24-year-old has come under fire from critics following poor form and off-field controversy this season, but the forward – who hasn’t scored for United from open play since March – believes that in time he will recover.
“I'm only a human being,” he said. “I hurt as well. I know I can play better, so I'm hoping to get a consistent run of games in the team.
“If I do that, I'm sure my form will be back to its best. When you're not playing at your best, you need to just continue playing and doing the simple things, then your form will come good.”
Rooney will miss United’s game at Sunderland today with an ankle injury, the latest setback in what has so far been a season to forget for a forward who scored 34 goals for his club in the last campaign, but flopped spectacularly for his country at the summer’s World Cup.
He could still recover in time for England’s Euro 2012 qualifier with Montenegro on October 12th, with club boss Sir Alex Ferguson claiming that it will be up to the England manager to decide whether or not his star forward is fit enough to play.
“Wayne trained on Thursday and he wants to play on Saturday [against Sunderland],” said Ferguson.
“But I have to take the view that this injury has been niggling away for a while and he kept on playing. I have to be dead sure that I am doing the right thing because Wayne has not been doing himself justice.
“I think in a week he will be fine. Obviously we don't play in a week, so it is up to Fabio Capello whether he wants him to. The Montenegro match is another 10 days away and by that time I would expect Wayne to be 100%.”
Ferguson left Rooney out of last month’s 3-3 draw at the forward’s former club Everton for fear of the abuse he would get from fans in the wake of stories alleging that he had slept with prostitutes.
His only goal for United this season was a penalty against West Ham in August, although he did score on his last appearance for England in last month’s 3-1 victory over Switzerland in Basel.
“You always want to play well and give your manager no excuses to leave you out,” said Rooney. “I want to play every game and never want to be left out but that's the manager's decision.
“But you know that being at a top club like Manchester United there are top players there so you want to be at your best to keep your spot.
“All players get left out at some stage but I'm pretty confident my form will be back to where it should be.”
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