Troubled Rooney arrives in Switzerland by Jonathan Wilson, dpa (News Feature)

Sep 6, 2010, 14:26 GMT

London - England arrived in Switzerland on Monday for what is, on paper, their toughest Euro 2012 qualifier but thoughts were dominated not by the game but by Wayne Rooney.

Switzerland have one of the best defences in world football, just four goals conceded in their last 10 games, but everything seems focused less on how to break down a side that thwarted even Spain than by how Rooney will cope with details of his private life being splashed all over the tabloids on Sunday and Monday.

'Wayne Rooney is an amazing player,' said the Swiss defender Scott Sutter. 'When he's on his game, it is hard for anyone to stop him.

'But with these things going on in his private life, it depends how mentally strong he is and whether he can put it to the back of his mind and play like the way we know he can.'

Rooney, it is alleged, slept with a prostitute seven times over a four-month period while his wife Coleen was pregnant.

Whether that is the business of anybody but Rooney, his wife and, if the stories are true, the prostitute, is doubtful. But the fact the stores have been published makes them a matter of concern to England for the impact they may have on the forward's form.

Could it, in fact, have been knowledge that the stories were brewing that led to Rooney's oddly detached and unimpressive form at the World Cup?

A couple of aspects of the affair, though, do stand out, for oddity value if nothing else.

The alleged prostitute in question, 21-year-old Jennifer Thompson, cost 1000 pounds a night (1500 dollars), which, frankly, for a player earning over 100,000 pounds a week doesn't seem much.

Weren't public figures in the eighties regularly caught with '1000 pound-a-night-hookers?' Or has prostitution as a whole not been subject to the same inflationary pressures as the rest of the economy?

It's not quite like 2004, when Rooney was revealed to have used a 45 pound-a-night and paid for sex with a 48-year-old grandmother who wore a rubber catsuit - Coleen took him back after that episode - but still, is he that frugal in other aspects of his life?

And also, if the allegations are true, Rooney has not been the wisest man.

The alleged 'two-hour romps' took place in the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, which is such a regular haunt of footballers that the England squad has stayed there before internationals.

Is he really so unimaginative he couldn't think of anywhere more exotic, anywhere where he was less likely to be caught?

Manager Fabio Capello must be furious.

Earlier this year he stripped John Terry of the captaincy following allegations he had cheated with the former girlfriend of his Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge, allegations she vehemently denies.

Bridge withdrew from international football as a result. Now Capello has another sex scandal to deal with. And to think when he left Italy, stereotype told him he was moving to a land with a rather stricter moral code.