Wayne Rooney has today confessed that he no longer wants to play for Manchester United. After repeatedly stating his desire to spend the rest of his career at the club, talking of his love for the club and his respect for the manager, he has now made a massive U-Turn.

According to him, he now wants to move with his wife to Spain, taking their 11 month old baby boy with them. The pair of decided they no longer need the support of their family down the road, Coleen is no longer concerned about her seriously ill younger sister who suffers from the brain disorder Rett Syndrome, and they believe they will be better off in a country where they don’t speak the language and have no support network.

Rooney made his confession today when asked about the ankle injury Sir Alex Ferguson claimed he had.

“I’ve had no ankle problem all season,” he replied. When asked as to why Ferguson had said he had an injury, Rooney replied: “I don’t know.”

And then on to the bit about leaving United and joining Real Madrid…

Oh, no, apparently there wasn’t actually anything said about that. However, that hasn’t stopped ESPN, Who Ate All The Pies?, The Metro, The First Post and the like all claiming that Rooney has ‘opened the exit door’ and is ready to leave United.

Let’s be honest, we’d be foolish to think that the manager always tell the truth to the media because he always has our players’ best interests at heart. If he feels pressure will be taken off Rooney by claiming his poor performances are down to a niggling injury, then he will do it. However, Rooney did put ice on his ankle after being subbed off at Bolton, which would be a bizarre thing for him to do if he felt nothing at all.

Still, let’s not kid ourselves in to thinking that Rooney has a completely realistic view of his own fitness and form. He always wants to play and will convince himself, subconsciously even, that he is fine. Anyone who watches United every week though will see he’s been a shadow of the player he was ever since he picked up that injury in Germany. He was rushed back for the second leg against Bayern Munich but has struggled to replicate anything of the form he was enjoying before that ankle injury.

Realistically, it’s probably six of one and half a dozen of the other. Ferguson has exaggerated Rooney’s injury to protect him, Rooney has played down his injury because he wants to play.

The undeniable problem here though is that Rooney has publicly denied a claim the manager has made, which won’t go down too well with the boss at all. The possible options are this is naivety or stupidity on Rooney’s part, not thinking about what he’s saying before he says it. Or he could very possibly be frustrated with the manager saying something he doesn’t believe to be true, with the aim of keeping him out of the recent England game.

However, whatever the reason behind Rooney saying what he has about his injury, this is not a situation anyone needs to be getting in to a tizz about.

Only an International break could bring such hysterical reporting over something so entirely irrelevant. Roll on the weekend!