Fight 'Could Have Killed' Rooney

The Sunday Supplement panel believe Wayne Rooney could have seriously injured himself boxing with Phil Bardsley in his kitchen.

The England captain hit the front page of The Sun on Sunday after he was filmed apparently being knocked unconscious by his friend Bardsley during a ‘lads night in’ at his Cheshire home.

The video, which was reportedly filmed the day after Manchester United lost to Swansea in February, shows the pair wearing boxing gloves and sparring playfully before the intensity increased and Rooney was knocked flat on his back by a left hand from Stoke defender Bardsley.

The Manchester United forward’s head narrowly missed his breakfast bar as he fell motionless on his back and Jeremy Cross of the Daily Star felt he was lucky the injury wasn’t worse.

He told the Sunday Supplement: “We joke about it, but he could have really hurt himself. He could have killed himself even, without being too dramatic about it.

“It looks like a marble floor, so it’s rock hard. It’s crazy behaviour for someone of his responsibility.

“I’d love to know what was going on in Roy Hodgson’s head when he picked up the paper this morning and saw that story.”

England manager Hodgson is set to name his squad next week ahead of matches against Lithuania and Italy at the end of March, but John Cross of the Daily Mirror does not think the story will damage his relationship with his captain.

However, he suspects Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal will not be impressed by the story coming out on the morning of their clash with Tottenham.

Cross said: “It’s obviously done in his rather spacious and palatial home, but he has fallen backwards and I looked in horror because you can see the feet go back in the air and the head is so near to his breakfast bar, which would have compounded the agony even further. It is dangerous.

“I think he’s got a little bit unlucky if I’m honest. It’s one of the red-top stories of the year, a brilliant story and I just feel Rooney will pick that up and be annoyed it has got out.

“He’ll also be thinking ‘so what’ and it will be interesting to see what Roy Hodgson’s reaction to it will be. I suspect he will be more sympathetic than Louis van Gaal, who might see it more seriously.

“The thing is it could have given him concussion. It has been an unlucky incident for Wayne Rooney, but by the same token I don’t think it’s the best preparation for a game.”

Credit: Skysports.com