Rio Ferdinand’s intended compliment to Wayne Rooney may have massively backfired

He probably could have used his words a little bit better.

Wayne Rooney, despite his drop in form over the past number of seasons, reminded everyone of what he has achieved in his career when he finally surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton's Manchester United goal scoring record. The 31-year-old has won five Premier League titles, one FA Cup, one Champions League; he has been crowned PFA player of the year once, young player of the year twice and been named in the PFA team of the year three times. So, there is no doubt that Rooney has enjoyed a stellar career even though his greatest days seem to be firmly behind him. One of the main reasons that Rooney was such an excellent player back in his heyday, besides his ridiculous goal scoring record, was his work rate. He often ranked highest in terms of distance covered on the pitch and this is why former teammate, Rio Ferdinand, thinks Rooney now has the body of a 40-year-old. Ferdinand told the The Express: 

"He is probably in a 40-year-old athlete's body. Most of those games he has played, his stats showed he had probably out-run everybody in the team - as he was always telling us!"

Although Ferdinand means well, we could probably find a better way at trying to compliment a former teammate. Nevertheless, although Ferdinand holds reservations about Rooney's fitness and his ability to perform at the highest level, he believes that finally surpassing Charlton's record may prove to be a catalyst which reinvigorates the much-maligned star.

"The big thing for Wayne Rooney has been to get through that barrier of 250 goals for Manchester United." he said. "That is a lot of pressure. "Getting there might just release a fresher Wayne Rooney. But you cannot get away from when your body is telling you one thing. Wayne Rooney is the only person who will know it is over."

It remains to be seen whether Rooney's performances will now improve as the season continues, but we may not even get the chance to see this as speculation continues to grow around a proposed move to the Chinese Super League. Catch up with this week's episode of 888sport Football Friday Live