Soccer News
Beckenbauer: World Cup will lose a top star if Rooney can't play
May 5, 2006, 15:56 GMT
Hamburg - The football World Cup will be without one of its top attractions if England forward Wayne Rooney is sidelined due to his foot fracture, organizing committee president Franz Beckenbauer said.
'Hopefully Wayne Rooney will be fit in time. Despite his age of 20 he is among those players you can't replace,' the German football icon Beckenbauer said in a press release Friday.
'His absence would be a huge loss, for England - which was already visible at Euro 2004 - and for the tournament which would lose one of its top attractions,' Beckenbauer lamented.
Rooney broke a matatarsal in two places in his right foot during a league match of his club Manchester United at Chelsea last Saturday.
He has just six weeks to get fit for the June 9-July 9 World Cup in Germany, with England's first match on June 10 against Paraguay.
But coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has already suggested that he will have Rooney on the team even if he can not play until the later stages of the tournament.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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