Former England and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer feels that Wayne Rooney should quit international football in order to prolong his club career at Manchester United.
Rooney is currently the captain of both club and country, and that has taken its toll massively on the 30-year-old. Rooney, second on Manchester United’s all-time goal scorers list, has experienced a significant dip in form over the last couple of seasons and is no longer a guaranteed starter.
Shearer himself retired at the age of 29 and went on to have an extremely fruitful career at Newcastle, where he finished as the club’s highest scorer.
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The 46-year-old voiced his opinion in his column in The Sun recently and stated that Rooney needs to start thinking more about himself.
The former England international said, “It is time for Rooney to be selfish and start thinking just about himself, and that, I really regret to say, means his retirement from international football. I don’t say this in the belief that he is no longer good enough for England — he is. Rooney still possesses magic in those boots, even if they don’t go as quickly as they used to."
Shearer also feels that the versatile Englishman has given his all for his nation and club and needs to make a conscientious decision regarding his future, “He is 30 now and captaining your club and country, satisfying the demand to play at the top level for both, gets harder. I retired in 2000 aged 29.”
“Much of that was down to three serious injuries. Some people said I was being selfish. I knew my body better than anyone and simply could not do it any more for club and country.”
Shearer, who played on until the age of 36 feels that he would not have been able to do so had he prolonged his England career.
“If I had gone on there would have come a time when I would have been dropped because I couldn’t satisfy the physical demands. So I decided to cut my England career short to avoid that day and also so I could give my best to Newcastle. I played on until I was almost 36 and would not have been able to do that had I played any longer for England.”
Wayne Rooney, who has been handed the captain’s armband for the game against Slovakia later this week, is England’s all-time leading goal scorer and is poised to become their highest capped outfield player as well.
