Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney turns 39 on Thursday and the former striker-turned-coach has fought a lot of battles during his life and career.
The 39-year-old is currently in charge of Championship side Plymouth Argyle and while he may be known for his incredible footballing abilities, he’s been a long-time fan of another sport too.
Wazza was a member of an amateur boxing club in his teen years in Liverpool and continued sparring with friends during his downtime as a professional footballer. However, it all went wrong when he was infamously knocked out by former team-mate Phil Bardsley in his kitchen back in 2015.
The pair were joking around when Rooney hit the deck, with a clip of the incident quickly going viral on social media. Thankfully he was okay and even made a joke out of it with a cheeky ‘knockout’ style celebration when scoring against Tottenham Hotspur a few days later.
Bardsley only ever made eight first-team appearances for the Red Devils but has remained close friends with Rooney ever since. When asked about his punch back in 2021, he said: “I didn’t know what to do, everyone was panic stations!
(Image: Kieran Mcmanus/BPI/REX/Shutterstock)
“[Rooney] comes around and goes to the sink, I’ve got a big cut lip, blood everywhere, he’s got a bit of blood, we were running it under the sink and we just looked at each other and laughed.”
Bardsley was playing for Stoke City at the time and tipped Rooney for a career in boxing following his retirement. Coincidentally, it was revealed earlier this year that Wazza had held talks to sign up with Misfits, the boxing promotion founded by YouTube icon KSI.
It’s probably a good thing the move never materialised given his knockout blow back in 2015. It’s safe to say Rooney should stick to a football pitch rather than a boxing ring.