Bad Roon Falling

If you watched Manchester United's putatively Thermopylaean but ultimately lame attempt to stop Chelsea from winning the EPL title, then you know the big World Cup news of the weekend: Wayne Rooney broke his fourth metatarsal in an awkward fall. The projected layoff time is six weeks, throwing his World Cup participation into extreme doubt.

Will Sven-Goran Eriksson take Rooney on his World Cup squad even if he can't play until the knockout phase? Apparently so. However Alex Ferguson counsels realism.

Probably the immediate plan is for Sven to name him to the side and see how his recovery proceeds by the May 15th deadline. After that, he might be able to replace Rooney on the roster if he feels he needs to, but as the article I linked to above suggests, there is some confusion over whether FIFA would allow a player injured before May 15th to be replaced.

Is Sven crazy? I don't think so. The worst case scenario is that Rooney's foot doesn't recover in time (which is a big risk; when Rooney had a similar injury after Euro 2004 he was out for ten weeks), in which case he ends up being that 23rd man who never gets used. But the best case scenario is that you get him off the bench in the later rounds, rusty but a damn sight more dangerous than Darren Bent, or whoever else would have gotten Rooney's spot.

So who starts up front alongside Owen for England? Maybe this guy. I don't quite know how I feel about that.

P.S. This is all eerily familiar for England fans, since David Beckham picked up a similar injury before the World Cup. No nation in the world is more knowledgeable on the subject of metatarsals than the English.

P.P.S. Since the British press regularly compete against each other for the worst "Rooney" puns, I thought I'd give it a crack in the subject line. What do you think? It beat out "Roonquest" on the grounds that A) it fits with what actually happened and B) "Roonquest" is a reference that's too geeky and obscure even for this blog.