Wayne Rooney accuses Manchester United players of faking injuries

Wayne Rooney has launched a scathing attack on some of Manchester United’s injured players, accusing them of deliberately missing games to protect themselves for this summer’s FA Cup final or European Championship.

United slumped to their 19th defeat in all competitions as Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford moved Mikel Arteta’s side back above Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table and secured that the race for the title will go on the last day.

City can return to the top by beating Spurs on Tuesday, when Arteta will be hoping Tottenham can avoid defeat to give their north London rivals the advantage going into Sunday’s final round of fixtures.

Leandro Trossard’s 20th-minute goal was enough to see off a depleted United side and pile up the pressure on manager Erik ten Hag, who is without 11 senior players through injury.

But former United striker Rooney believes there are players in the Dutchman’s squad who are skipping games to protect their own interests with the Cup final against City and the Euros.

“There are some very good players in that team and the performance is way below normal,” United’s record goalscorer said.

“Look at the injuries they sustained. Some of these players can play. One hundred percent. A European Championship is coming, an FA Cup final is coming.

“Because they’re getting a bit of a stick now, it’s easy for players to stay away for a bit and then come back in the finals and apply for the European Championship.

“We’ve seen that over the years. I just think the players who got injured don’t get any credit at the moment and the manager will take the brunt of it.”

United declined to comment on Rooney’s remarks.

Keane supports Rooney

Another former United captain, Roy Keane, echoed Rooney’s sentiments when he said: “It’s not a good sign if players don’t want to come back from injury and play. You’re always going to have those carrying injuries, but you’d hope they’d be desperate to get back into football.

“There’s always a few players at a club who drag their heels with injuries, but generally speaking and thinking about the players I’ve played with, if you give them a period of time they’re going to be out, they’ll look to knock on for a week or two of this.

“Sometimes when it’s a certain time of the season or players are lacking in confidence, they’re in no rush to get back into the team.”

United’s defeat left them in eighth place with two games to play and risk missing out on European qualification altogether this season, which Ten Hag admitted would be “very damaging”.

“It’s very damaging but that’s the situation we’re in but we can still get there,” said the United manager. “We have opportunities, we have to take responsibility and then you have to jump at every opportunity to do it and fight even when the problems are massive.

“You can’t progress a team in certain key areas with so many injuries, it’s like swimming with your hands behind your back and you have to keep your head above water – that’s what we’re trying to do.”