Hair transplant kick starts Wayne Rooneys game
September 2011
Wayne Rooney is back in explosive form after trying to resolve the
stresses in his life.
For one, the Manchester United and England striker concluded his
head was just not right. Alarmed by his thinning thatch, Rooney
risked ridicule in the off-season by undergoing a $50,000 hair
transplant.
And the results like United's this season are
unequivocal, with those new follicles now covering his scalp.
I've spent more time in the mirror, Rooney quipped Tuesday at the
England team hotel. I'm sure some of you who are going bald, it's a
bit stressful. So I made a decision to get it done. I thought, why
not?
It came at the end of a season to forget for Rooney, aside from
another Premier League winner's medal.
Exactly a year ago, while also on England duty, Rooney woke up to
lurid tabloid claims that he cheated repeatedly on his then-pregnant
wife Coleen with a prostitute.
Rooney's public stock was already at rock bottom after failing to
score at the 2010 World Cup where he complained about fans' jeers
into a TV camera.
Even Rooney's club did not prove to be a sanctuary, with the
25-year-old forward enraging United fans and teammates in October by
publicly threatening to quit. But after complaining about United's
inability to compete in the transfer market for top players, Rooney
was soon rewarded with a lucrative new contract.
What I did was wrong, he said. I am thankful that I stayed and
signed. It's the best decision I have made in my football career.
He quickly began to repay United, attributing his resurgence to a
New Year's Day goal against West Bromwich Albion the first from
open play in nine months that propelled his team to a
record-breaking 19th English title.
Although there was a further blotch on his character being banned
for swearing into a TV camera at least it came while scoring a hat
trick.
Just as he did on Sunday in a 8-2 rout of Arsenal, taking his tally
to five goals in United's opening hat trick of wins.
It was frustrating (last season) because I knew I could do better,
he said. I was working hard in training and in games but things
weren't coming off. It is hard to come to terms with that.
It would have been quite easy to lose confidence in myself and my
ability to come back to my best. Obviously I saw people on TV or in
the newspapers questioning me but in a way that helped because I
wanted to prove they were wrong. It made me more angry and willing
to get back to doing it.
Now a veteran of a United side being packed with emerging talent by
Alex Ferguson, Rooney knows he has to shoulder greater
responsibilities for both club and country.
There have been times when I have been more aggressive and gone in
for silly challenges, but I am not really doing that anymore, he
said. Sometimes it happens and it's hard to control, but if you
stay in control, your performances will be better. And at the
moment, I feel good.
That newfound confidence extends to the media, smiling and
self-deprecating while even confessing to ignoring the off-season
fitness regime set by United.
Rooney just needed a summer without football, spent with his family
on beaches and the Glastonbury music festival.
At the end of the season, I made a decision to do no training
whatsoever in the summer, he said. I honestly didn't lift any
weights or run. Nothing. The fitness coach gave me a program to
follow but I left it behind.
I had to watch what I was eating because I am the type of person
who could easily put on a lot of weight. I was a couple of kilos
over when I came back to training but it's easy enough to lose with
the work we do in preseason and I certainly feel that has benefited
me.
The five goals in three games for United are evidence of that.
And Rooney feels in the right frame of mind going into his first
England matches since March, with 2012 European Championship
qualifiers at Bulgaria on Saturday and at home to Wales four days
later.
I am in a happy place, both on and off the pitch, he said.
I'm over (the problems) now, he added. I want to put it behind me
and keep moving on and moving forward.
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