Please Stay Fit Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney contributed what looked like a good all round performance for Man Utd vs Blackburn on Saturday, featuring some nice link play and a sweet sweet goal which he swept home to make it 2-0 (around 4:10 in the above video).

I saw about 15 minutes of the game live, and there was also a magic little inside-of-the-foot-with-back-to-goal pass that somehow didn’t make the Match of the Day cut.

So why am I gushing about Wayne Rooney? Because I’m thinking about the impact he might make at World Cup 2010.

We haven’t seen the real Wayne Rooney at an international tournament since he lit up Euro 2004 as an 18 year old (which could make a good England Flashback post, assuming I can find some good YouTube footage). After Rooney was injured in the quarterfinal, and Portugal knocked us out on penalties, I couldn’t wait to see the boy back in a major tournament.

But at World Cup 2006, Rooney was basically injured and shouldn’t have been there. Euro 2008 we didn’t make it (less said about that the better). So World Cup 2010 could be billed as the return of (the real) Wayne Rooney to international tournament football, a full six years after Euro 2004. Please no injuries in April or May. Please.