Nike Youth Premier III FGR Black with White

England fans will have been horrified at the news that Wayne Rooney may miss the World Cup 2006. Even if he makes a miraculous recovery, he is unlikely to be firing on all cylinders for England. Potentially Englands best ever footballer, Rooney will not be at his best for the World Cup 2006, if there at all.

Just last week I covered the news that Rooney would be wearing a new pair of football boots for the game. The week before I wrote about banning bladed football boots, for Englands sake.

Wayne Rooney wasnt wearing bladed boots when he injured his metatarasal. His new Nike Total 90 Supremacy, were traditional screw in boots, Alex Ferguson wont allow his players to wear bladed boots after Roy Keane broke a metatarsal.

Ferreira, who made the tackle on Rooney when he was injured, was wearing bladed boots, but after watching the replay its clear the blades of Ferreiras football boots were not responsible for the injury to Rooney.

So is there any blame to be attributed to anyone, or anything? Yes.

Having watched the replay of the tackle on Rooney over and over (watch it here), I believe that the break to the metatarsal was caused by the shin of Ferreiras trailing leg catching Rooneys football boot in the turf and twisting the foot.

When watching the replay, it is clear that immediately following his football boot becoming caught in the turf, you can see the top of Rooneys football boot twisting. This is where the metatarsal is located and when the bone broke.

Ferreiras right shin makes contact with the football boot of Wayne Rooney. The football boot twists Rooneys foot, breaking the metatarsal and leaves Rooney and England with a slim chance of success at the World Cup 2006.

I believe that this injury is a result of Rooney wearing his new Nike Total 90 Supremacy football boots. I believe this football boot and other modern football boots do not provide enough protection. Specifically in the case of the injury to Rooney, the sole of the football boots is too flexible and did not give enough support to Rooneys foot. The metatarsal injury was unheard of years ago, now with modern ligtweight foortball boots its responsible for 30% of long term injuries.

With the long list of International English footballers suffering from metatarsal breaks (Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Trevor Sinclair, Ashley Cole, Scott Parker, Michael Owen, Danny Murphy, Steven Gerrard), surely it needs some offical research into the matter. Not that it will help England and Rooneys chances of making the World Cup 2006.