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Rooney says he will not quit England despite being benched
LONDON: Wayne Rooney has insisted he will not contemplate retiring from international football despite being dropped from a competitive England fixture for the first
LONDON: Wayne Rooney has insisted he will not contemplate retiring from international football despite being dropped from a competitive England fixture for the first time in his career.
Rooney’s removal from Gareth Southgate’s team to play Slovenia means England’s record scorer has now lost his place for both club and country after being relegated to the substitutes’ bench in United’s past three games.
“It is something which I have to go through,” Rooney said.
“I am big enough to deal with it. I believe I can come back from this. I am 30 years of age. I am not 35 or 36 where you are thinking: ‘Can you get back from it?’
“I will keep working and I have said before that I will not stop playing for England and start going to Dubai for a few days in the international break.
“After the summer it would have been easy for me to walk away and say: ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough,’ but that’s not me.
“I feel I have a lot to offer and I’ve made that clear [to Southgate], certainly until the World Cup in Russia. That’s what I want.
“I’m not suddenly going to turn round and say: ‘I’m not playing, I’m not going to turn up.’ I will turn up when called upon and be ready.”
Rooney said he was not entirely surprised by Southgate’s decision and accepted that a lot of football people, most notably Alan Shearer, had already stated he should have given up international football.
“I personally don’t know these people. They are entitled to their opinions.
“If it was Gareth or my manager at club level or friends or team-mates, that would be hurtful. People can say what they want.
“I’ve had it throughout my career and it doesn’t concern me. That’s what Alan believes.”
BENTEKE SCORES FASTEST GOAL
Christian Benteke struck the fastest goal in a competitive international and went on to complete his hat-trick as Belgium defeated Gibraltar 6-0.
The Crystal Palace striker stole the ball in the home side’s half after two Gibraltar touches following the kick-off and weaved his way through their defence to score from inside the area after only 8.1 sec.
Uefa said the goal was 0.2sec faster than the previous record since detailed timing was kept, held by San Marino’s Davide Gualtieri against England in a 1993 World Cup qualifier.
Uefa said the fastest ever international goal is thought to be Lukas Podolski’s for Germany against Ecuador in a 2013 friendly, timed at six seconds.
