Rooney wore longer studs to injure Chelsea – but ended up on crutches himself

Wayne Rooney has revealed that he once wore extra long studs on his boots during a match against Chelsea in April 2006 because he "wanted to hurt someone".

Jose Mourinho's side needed just a point against Manchester United to claim their second successive Premier League crown, but Rooney and co. weren't going down without a fight.

United sat nine points behind Chelsea with three games remaining, so their chances of catching the Blues were slim, but Rooney admitted that he "couldn’t take" the idea of watching his rivals clinch the title at Stamford Bridge, so decided to take drastic action.

"I changed my studs before the game," Rooney revealed in the upcoming Amazon documentary 'Rooney', which is set for release on Friday.

"I put longer studs in because I wanted to hurt someone.

"The studs were legal, they were a legal size, but they were bigger than what I would normally wear.

"If Chelsea won a point, they won the league. At that time, I couldn’t take it," he added.

Not only did the scheme fail to work, as Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners, it actually ended up backfiring horribly.

During the second-half, Rooney was involved in a collision with Paulo Ferreira and as he fell, his long studs got caught in the turf and he broke his metatarsal – putting his participation in the upcoming 2006 World Cup in serious doubt.

Would England have won the 2006 World Cup if Rooney had been fully fit? Let us know what you think in the comments section below…

He only missed one match, England's opening game against Paraguay, but looked half-fit for the rest of tournament amid concerns he'd been rushed back too early.

Rooney failed to score a single goal before being infamously sent off against Portugal as England crashed out at the quarter-final stage.

'Rooney' is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video from Friday 11th February.

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