Wayne Rooney has questioned why Manchester United striker Benjamin Sesko sat out the club’s 1-1 draw away at Fulham with a shin injury.
Rooney took to his podcast Stick to United to voice his displeasure with Sesko’s absence from Sunday’s game, implying that the Slovenian’s shin injury was not serious enough to keep him out. ‘Shin? Has he broken it?’ said Rooney. ‘You can hurt your shin, you can take tackles… I bet he’s wearing them little stupid shinpads as well.’
The former United skipper did not stop there, later going on to say, ‘If you’re trying to play No9 [for Man United] and you’ve got a must-win game and you’ve got a sore shin and you’re not playing… that’s a big part of the problem.’
Later on in the show he reflected on his time at United, saying: ‘Unless you physically can’t play, you play when you’re injured. I remember before games we used to get injections and the doctor used to put them in your arse.’
Wayne Rooney did not mince his words when criticising the Slovenian international
Sesko has enjoyed purple patches in his short time at Old Trafford but has been unable to pick up consistent form
Two more former United players, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, also voiced their concern over the striker’s omission from Sunday’s squad.
On their podcast, The Good, The Bad & The Football with Paddy McGuinness, Scholes aligned with his ex-teammate’s view, saying: ‘If it isn’t broken, just wear your shinpads.’ Butt then added: ‘You’re a player – you either break your shin or you don’t play!’
Paul Scholes (left) and Nicky Butt (right) agreed with Rooney that Sesko should have played through the injury
As Daily Mail Sport reported yesterday, the comments by Butt and Scholes did not go down well in Slovenia, with Leeds defender Jaka Bijol backing Sesko to rise above it.
‘I hope and believe that Beni knows how to distance himself from this kind of pressure,’ he said. ‘When things aren’t going your best on the pitch and you have certain doubts, reading things like this can make your confidence even worse.
‘He shouldn’t pay too much attention to it, since we all know what quality he has. He himself knows what kind of footballer he is, and I think he always shows it with incredible things on the pitch.’
Another of Sesko’s compatriots, Zan Vipotnik of Swansea, also spoke out in defence of the forward as he said: ‘It’s not easy for him. Recurring physical problems are bad, and to add to that it messes with your head… I really hope and believe his absence from the pitch will be as short as possible and that things will turn for the best very soon.’
