Wayne Rooney breaks a bone in his foot again and the world needs answers.
There’s no way that Rooney is fragile. He is the definition of an English bulldog. There has to be some outside force causing this problem. Well, last weekend that outside force was Michael Duberry of Reading. Many claim the shoes are not protecting the player from impact so that they can be lighter. What kind of shield are soccer players supposed to wear on the top of their shoe to protect them from breaking a bone? Can you imagine the army style boots that would be necessary? The truth of what happened to Rooney is somewhere between him possibly not drinking enough milk as a child, and Nike not making a soccer shoe that provides protection. The shoes are lighter, but they are also very strong and well tested. Rooney himself put in time with Nike in developing his signature shoe to his specifications. Dozens of professional players wore the Nike Total 90 Laser last weekend and didn’t break any bones. Surely, many of them received a challenge equal to Duberry’s on Rooney (including teammate Patrice Evra who was wearing the same boots when Dave Kitson tackled him). Rooney plays incredibly tough and pushes his body to the limit with every step on the field. He is literally pushing himself to his breaking point. I love to watch him play and I will miss him for the next 6-8 weeks.
Here’s one last interesting point of irony – the bottom of the Total 90 Laser has a graphic of a skeleton foot. I wonder which one of those bones Rooney actually broke.
