Everton: Wayne Rooney adds injury to insult

Wayne Rooney suffers a nasty eye injury versus Bournemouth, to sum up a tough week for him both on and off the pitch for Everton.

Wayne Rooney has undoubtedly lost count of how many eventful weeks he’s had, since his professional career started as a teenager with Everton. However, you have to imagine last week ranked near the very bottom on the positivity scale.

It started badly enough, when Rooney pleaded guilty to drink-driving on Monday. As reported by The Guardian‘s Josh Halliday, he was given a two-year driving ban, fined two weeks’ wages and sentenced to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work.

(At least something positive came out of the whole unsavoury episode, with the 31-year-old’s fine being donated to charity. At around £300,000, it’s certainly a lot of money to go towards a good cause.)

Unfortunately for Rooney, his tough week wasn’t about to end there. Call it fate, irony or something else, but Saturday’s game against Bournemouth served as the opportunity to sum up the previous seven days for him.

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As most Evertonians — and indeed football fans in general — will have seen by now, the recently retired England international suffered a nasty looking injury to his face. It happened during the first half, when he competed for an aerial ball with Bournemouth’s Simon Francis.

Rooney was left bloodied by the incident, as a result of Francis’ stray arm. To be fair to the defender, he immediately apologised for the incident, but his opponent was furious.

The former Manchester United star was able to finish the first half after receiving lengthy treatment. However, he was eventually replaced 10 minutes into the second half.

As you’d expect, opinion was split on whether Francis should have been punished or not, with him not even receiving a yellow card. As reported by The Telegraph‘s Callum Davis, former Everton midfielder Kevin Kilbane told BBC’s Final Score show:

"“He’s extremely lucky Francis. He knows exactly what he’s doing and it’s a straight arm to the face. It should be a penalty and a red card.”"

However, former Premier League referee Graham Poll disagreed, saying it was the correct call not send Francis off. As reported by the Metro, Poll told BT Sport:

"“It’s not deliberate. Because if a player wants to do someone with an arm, they tend to clench their fist to give it power.”"

In our humble opinion, Francis did not do it on purpose )although he could have easily received a yellow), something which Everton manager Ronald Koeman acknowledged. Speaking to Sky Sports, Koeman said:

"“It is his arm. It is not really with intention, but yes it is above his eye and (the wound) is totally open. The doctor said to me at half-time if it happened again we would need to change him; I changed him because we needed something different.”"

Interestingly, when Rooney and Davy Klaassen came off the pitch, their replacements both played a significant role in turning around a game which the Blues were losing 1-0 at the time. Oumar Niasse scored twice, while Tom Davies was involved in the buildup to both goals.

In theory, you don’t imagine Rooney will miss much — if any — playing time. And yet, it will be interesting to see what part the turnaround on Saturday will play in Koeman’s plans moving forward, as he looks to make the Blues’ attack more potent.

It’s tough to argue Niasse doesn’t deserve another chance, especially as he now has three goals in his two appearances so far this season. As for Rooney, he’ll just be hoping his bad week doesn’t turn into a terrible fortnight, or worse.

Next: Calls for Koeman to be sacked are insane

What did you make of the challenge by Francis? Was it accidental? Should he have received at least a yellow card? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.