Clubs wait for Rooney injury update

Wayne Rooney faces a race against time to be fit for the start of the Premiership season.

That means clubs having to decide whether to delay any multi-million bids to prise the striker away from Everton.

Chelsea and Manchester United were said to have been considering transfer bids for the 18-year-old, who lit up the Euro 2004 finals with four goals.

However, Rooney was taken off after 26 minutes of England’s quarter-final clash with Portugal in Lisbon last night.

Hospital X-rays showed he had fractured a metatarsal bone in his right foot, much like David Beckham did before the 2002 World Cup.

Sven-Goran Eriksson revealed it would take around six weeks for the striker to recover, with the start of the new season now just seven weeks away on August 14.

“Exactly in medical terms, I can’t tell you about it, but it’s a bone broken in his foot and he’s supposed to be out for six weeks,” said the coach.

“It’s more or less what happened to David Beckham before the World Cup.”

Everton will be hoping Rooney is in their line-up for their opening Premiership game of the season at home to Arsenal.

The injury could actually help their cause for clubs would be taking a risk if they splashed out more than £25m (€37m) to sign a player who could not pass a medical until his injury had cleared up.

Eriksson, meanwhile, was refusing to blame the teenager’s freak injury for England’s defeat on penalties by Portugal.

“It’s a pity as he was injured rather badly. But I wouldn’t say we would have won if he had been on the pitch,” he insisted.

“That’s just an excuse which I don’t want to use.”