I can’t wait for England-Paraguay
Why? Because I’m hungry for new disappointments.
World Cups do that to you.
But I’m not as hungry for new disappointments as I was in 1998 and 2002 because our best player is crocked.
When we came back from that peace festival with the students in Oxford, and switched on the TV at seven o’clock, and found that Rooney had done his metatarsal at Chelsea, my summer was wrecked in a second.
Because Rooney is a one-man army. He does Kenny Dalglish things and he also does Ian Rush things. He is the best footballer England has produced since Bobby Charlton.
THE SUN has decided that a World Cup without Wayne is not a World Cup, so they run daily stories saying that Wayne is making a miracle recovery, that he is fine, that he can come back from a metatarsal in 24 days.
It’s true that a fourth metatarsal is easier to heal than a fifth because the small toe takes a lot more weight when the foot is turning. The fifth toe is load-bearing and therefore vital. And it is true that the smallest toe has almost no blood supply, so it heals more slowly.
Todays Sun says that Man United’s Mike Stone, the doctor who was supervising Rooney’s rehab, has been sacked by Sir Alex.
ENGLAND play Paraguay in Frankfurt on June 10th at 2pm.
While Wayne has been in rehab, I’ve been in rehab. My hopes were shattered but they’ve had an MRI scan and the news is quite good. My hopes could mend in a few weeks.
So I’ve devised a programme to get myself ready for the World Cup.