Wayne Rooney, the captain of Manchester United, has been recovering from a small injury and has missed the last couple of games. His playing in the English Football Cup final against Southampton is put in doubt, and he will probably be absent again from the Europa League final 32-leg against the French Saint-Etienne.
Rooney, the 31-year-old player for Manchester has not taken part in any game since February. The reason for that is his illness. Early before that, he was an unused substitute in the match against Watford. In mid-week, it will be the fifth game in a row he will not be participating in. By any means, he has to be part of the games or he will be lacking match sharpness for the showcase final at Wembley.
The defender of the team, Phil Jones, has not played in the Premier League since their game against Hull City, due to a foot injury. He will not play in the match against Saint-Etienne. Two other players – David De Gea and right-back Antonio Valencia has been out for the 2-0 win against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park but is expected to return after the rest.
Mourinho told reporters that De Gea was rested, according to the official United website. He added that Rooney and Jones are injured. He does not think they will recover in time. Antonio Valencia is rested, but Jones and Rooney have not trained with the rest of the team yet, so I do not believe that they will be able to play Wednesday. When he was asked if Rooney would be available against Southampton, he added that he does not know.
The last match before the illness and injury, for Wayne Rooney, was the second half against Hull City on 1 February. Comparing to that, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored five goals in his last appearance on the field. In this term, having scored just five goals in 29 appearances, Rooney is largely sidelined by the manager, Jose Mourinho, and in spite of being a club captain, he will probably not add any trophy to his collection anytime soon.
Jose Mourinho criticises the whole team for their calm approach in the build-up to Saturday night’s 3-0 Europe League last 32 first-leg over Saint-Etienne at Old Trafford.
The lacklustre defending of Manchester gave numerous chances for Saint-Etienne to score a goal and it was only their profligate finishing, that allowed Manchester go in at half-time with a slender lead.
Mourihno added that he had the feeling immediately in the dressing room, since it was too noisy funny and relaxed. His assistants had the same feeling during the warm-up, some of the men were not focused to get the proper kind of adrenaline in their bodies. After the game started the first thing they did was a back-pass to the striker. He continued saying that the first-half was tough. Even with him on the touchline, it was tough to communicate. However, the second-half was a completely different story.
Having the game on their hands with a dominant second-half, Manchester are now more than confident of seeing the job through during next Wednesday’s return fixture against the French team.