Wayne Rooney’s short fuse is matched by a short memory, judging by his comments at England’s World Cup training camp yesterday.
The Manchester United striker reacted indignantly when he was asked whether Fabio Capello had stressed to him the importance of maintaining his discipline and avoiding needless yellow cards.
“He’s not mentioned anything to me, personally,” Rooney responded sharply. “My discipline’s perfectly fine. I haven’t been booked for England for two to three years, so there’s no problem.”
LOCAL CLUB
Two to three years? Make that nine days. Rooney’s last booking in an England shirt came on June 7 in the squad’s final warm-up match, against local club Platinum Stars.
A volley of abuse directed at referee Jeff Selogilwe resulted in the match official warning Rooney that he would have to curb his tongue during the tournament and Capello also promised to talk to the player about the issue.
IMPROVED
Rooney was correct to say that his discipline has improved of late with his last booking in a full international dating back to a May 2008 friendly win over the US.
But an overall record of eight yellows and one red card in 61 international appearances does not exactly qualify him as the paragon of self-control he was portraying himself as.
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