Wayne Rooney has confirmed that he will no longer be performing the punching celebration in games after his wife caught his son depicting the same in his school.
The Manchester United and England captain was caught in a video while boxing with his former teammate Phil Bardsley in the kitchen of his Cheshire mansion last month. It was reported that Rooney was indeed knocked down by Bardsely.
Rooney went on to show his frustration about the incident in the game against Tottenham Hotspur. After scoring the teams third goal, Rooney punched in the air and fell down to the grass.
It sparked a lot of media attention. However, Rooney felt that it went beyond control as his own son, Kai, was caught doing the celebration when his wife went to pick him up at school.
“It’s funny, actually,” he said. “My wife went to pick up my lad (Kai) from school and saw him doing that in the classroom. I’m sure you won’t be seeing that again.”
He went on to say that he was caught on the wrong side of the punch, but was not knocked out as it was mentioned in the videos. “To be honest, it wasn’t a big issue with me.
“I was in a house with some friends. Obviously I was caught on the wrong end of a punch, but I wasn’t knocked out like it was reported. Unfortunately the video stopped there.”
“Obviously, I knew it was going into the newspaper and I spoke to the manager. He didn’t see it as a big issue. I didn’t see it as a big issue myself. Other people obviously do” he said.
Rooney also felt that he did not need to apologise to anyone as he did’nt do anything wrong. “Obviously, I like boxing. I come from a boxing background. It happened. If I’d felt it was that wrong, I’d have apologised to the right people if I felt it was wrong” he added.