Risk vs Reward: Rushing Rooney’s Return

Having seen numerous reports that Wayne Rooney has a 40% of playing against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, I’m sure many of us were quite happy but really is that a good thing?

We all know Wayne loves his football and the fact he is out injured is probably burning him but rushing him back won’t help the matter. Last Wednesday when Arsenal took on Barcelona part of the reason they were so comprehensively schooled is because both William Gallas and Cesc Fabregas were rushed back to play in the game. Against a team of Barcelona’s quality all of your players need to be at their best but both looked out of sorts making Barcelona’s job easier and to add to this Gallas again injured his calf ruling him out for the season whilst Fabregas fractured his leg also ruling himself out for the season.

Our game on Wednesday is a must win and even with a semi fit Rooney we boost our chances massively because as we have seen this season the problems he causes for defenders makes him unbearable to play against but if he was in fact to break down and worsen the injury, instead of perhaps being ready to face Citeh on April 17th as he is scheduled he could lengthen his lay off missing further matches or worse case scenario miss the rest of the season full stop.

I believe in taking a gamble, if it pays off you’re smiling and if ever we needed an ace in the hole this would be the time as we look to overturn the first leg deficit and catch Chelsea in the league but the risk of this could be too big. Playing at home with the team we have, I think we can get past Bayern Munich without Rooney (given that everyone shows up). At most I would have him on the bench and if things are looking dire then throw him on but in the long run, the risk of him playing could out match the rewards.