England’s wayward star must make most of luck

WAYNE Rooney is a lucky boy and so are England and Manchester United. It would have been easy for Uefa to have seen Rooney’s kick at Montenegro defender Miodrag Dzudovic, for which he received the red card in England’s final qualifier for Euro 2012, as the sort of serious violent conduct which deserved no clemency.

Instead, on appeal, they have reduced Rooney’s ban from three matches to two which leaves him available for England’s third group match at the European Championship next summer against Ukraine.

That makes England manager Fabio Capello’s decision to take Rooney to Euro 2012 straightforward. He has to go. Missing the entire group stages would have left Rooney short of tournament practice for the crucial knockout phase. It would have left Capello with the dilemma of whether it was worth disrupting his formation and alienating incumbent internationals in order to ‘carry’ his most gifted performer. Now there is certainty. Rooney misses matches against France and Sweden but would be on hand to bolster England’s attack against Ukraine in what could prove to be a group decider.

In many ways it is more than Rooney deserves after the sort of petulance which has dogged his career. The hope is that this time, at the age of 26, the lesson finally has been learned, especially as Uefa have confirmed that the ban for the third match will be suspended for four years, kicking in only if he is sent off in another European match. Effectively, with United in the Europa League after their elimination from the Champions League, that leaves Rooney on a disciplinary tightrope. He has to put club and country before temper tantrums. He needs to take personal responsibility. He has to grow up.

He owes that to the Football Association, who presented a persuasive case to Uefa on his behalf. He owes it to Capello, who he let down in Montenegro and to United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who has had to deal with the fall-out from Rooney’s international problems.

United, as well as England, could be beneficiaries of Rooney’s good fortune.

Against Basel, amid United’s elimination from the Champions League on Wednesday, Rooney looked a shadow of the player who has become England’s one undisputed world-class performer. He looked preoccupied. Jaded even. England need the real Rooney if they are to progress deep into Euro 2012. Capello knows that. He is not blinded by his unbeaten qualifying campaign. He knows the knockout phase of Euro 2012 requires hard work, meticulous organisation and a touch of genius.

Rooney is the only Englishman blessed with the latter and that explains the weight of the FA delegation to Nyon for an appeal whose ruling also requires the wayward striker to do some coaching in the community.

Club England managing director Adrian Bevington said: “We arrived with the possibility of Wayne Rooney missing the entire group phase so to have him available for the final group game against Ukraine is a positive result for us and Wayne Rooney as well.”

So it is. Now a relieved England and a hopefully rejuvenated Rooney must make the most of their luck.