Rooney Injury: Grasping at Straws

If you didn't hear (and I don't know how you couldn't have, considering even ESPN gave this a good deal of attention on SportsCenter), Wayne Rooney suffered an ankle injury yesterday in Manchester United's 2-1 Champions League quarterfinal loss to Bayern Munich.  Video of the injury is below (don't worry, nothing graphic at all):



The initial prognosis is that Rooney will be sidelined for two to four weeks, meaning that his World Cup hopes aren't in any real danger. While I don't want to wish ill upon opposing players, I certainly don't complain when it benefits the Yanks, so the news of this incident had me hoping that it would keep the Manchester United striker out of Fabio Capello's lineup for at least the first group stage match. Though some scans and what not are still being done, the initial prognosis should be close enough in that the Three Lions don't have to worry about replacing Rooney, so there goes those hopes of a Rooney-less England in our group stage opener.

As if that wasn't enough, the timing of the injury might end up helping Rooney recover from some nagging injuries that have been the result of a congested schedule and loads of minutes. In the same fashion that Clint Dempsey may benefit in June from the couple of months he had away from his usually considerable duties with Fulham due to his knee injury in January, Rooney may be fresher in South Africa as a result of missing out on a handful of games in a short period of time.  This Match Fit USA post on the topic acknowledges a good point, though, that with the EPL title (and, potentially, a Champions League campaign) hanging in the balance, Rooney's return might be closer to the two week end of that time frame.  I wouldn't be surprised if he made the return to the Red Devils' lineup without being 100% in order to help his side in the stretch run, which could end up nullifying any benefit of the time off, possibly even compounded the issue by keeping him from returning to full fitness before season's end.  On that note, USMNT fans might want to pull for Sir Alex Ferguson's team to move on to the Champions League semifinals and keep the EPL title race tight, so as to entice a less than full-strength Rooney to return (though you'll die a little inside by rooting for Manchester United).  Then again, it's not as if that is a guarantee that he won't be at the same form; as I said before, he's already been dealing with a number of injuries, yet he continues to dominate.

If there's any good from this, it's that it slows the Rooney express down for at least a couple of weeks.  It might not have too much of an impact, but I'm glad that Rooney won't be coming into the World Cup after months straight of being in what is arguably the best form of his career.  But, once again, if USMNT fans have learned anything over the past year, it's that a hot player stays hot despite some time away from the game.  After all, Landon Donovan had a month-plus break before heading to Everton, where his fine run of form picked up right where it left off.  Another plus might be that all of the crazy speculation and hand-wringing from the English media that will surely ensue will add just a little more pressure and scrutiny on the English squad, which must already be mentally drained from all of the negative attention they've received of late.  At this point, though, I guess I'm just grasping at straws, hoping that the dangerous striker and revered puppet won't carry the same polished play into June.

I'm not crazy enough to want Rooney in the lineup out of some desire to beat Capello and company at their best.  I don't care if they're not at full strength, a win is a win, and we're not exactly coming in with a team full of players who have been healthy and on form for months.  The English could field a pub team (not to be confused with the LA Galaxy), and I'd celebrate all the same.  And if we win, English fans and US soccer bashers will find a dozen or so excuses whether Rooney plays or not, so it ultimately doesn't really matter in that regard either.

The bottom line is, the USMNT hasn't exactly had the stoutest defense throughout qualification (though there were some promising signs against the Dutch), and it's pretty obvious that England is much less dangerous without Rooney in the lineup.  So I, along with every other USMNT fan, will continue to monitor Rooney's recovery, secretly (or maybe not so secretly) hoping that his recovery is more Jermaine Jones than Charlie Davies.   

If that does end up being the case, it will only reinforce my belief that the football gods are favoring our Red, White, and Blue this time around.