Source: Daily_Mail
Martin Samuel on Wayne Rooney injury: Not since Cinderella has so much rested on one foot
At first, all eyes were on Ivica Olic. His goal, the one the locals would have regarded as poetic justice, seemed to take an age, as he moved through the splayed ranks of Manchester United's defence to lash the ball past Edwin van der Sar. Only when the ball was in the net, was attention drawn to the stricken figure on the ground. He writhed, he turned one way, then the other, he held his foot. That precious foot. Not since Cinderella has so much golden hope rested on a foot. Agony and ecstasy: Wayne Rooney writhes in pain as Bayern Munich celebrate Ivica Olic's last minute winnerAnd when Wayne Rooney left the field, we limped along behind him. Manchester United supporters, who will not look beyond Saturday's match with Chelsea, but the rest of the country, too. We pay a man £6million to look after the England team and a mighty fine job of it he does, too, but without Rooney we may as well reimburse chimpanzees in washers. He is the difference, as he so nearly was. He is what elevates a good team to greatness. Even if our worst fears are not confirmed, the spring in our step will have disappeared. We have glimpsed the dark side. Death and taxes, the only certainties in life. Wayne's pain: Rooney is helped on the sidelines by United's backroom teamAnd an injury to Rooney when you can least afford it. To see the player central to all the best-laid plans in English football -those of United in Europe, and England in South Africa - lying on the pitch is to acknowledge our vulnerability. Players hate the phrase one-man team and it does a severe injustice to Rooney's club and his country, but what cannot be ignored is that without him, each side is reduced. He was the figure that kept Bayern Munich occupied, just as he destroyed AC Milan, and inspired England through their qualifying group stage. United might win the league without him, England might make a good fist of the World Cup, but it will be considerably harder to achieve at the highest level. Rooney unfit is the deal-breaker, as he was for Sven Goran Eriksson in 2004 and again in 2006; as he was for Steve McClaren in that final game against Croatia. Lose Rooney and the opposition loses the fear. The only players indulging a smile at his hobbling disappearance would have been in Chelsea's ranks and, even then, not the English ones. That scene is framed in every mind's eye as a national worst nightmare. Perhaps it is because he is so strong that these moments of weakness are so pitiful. There is no braver player in world football than Rooney, none more selfless and it is only when he gets hurt that we remember the punishment he takes for his team. He is just 24 and yet he fights his opponents two at a time, as he did. The irony was it was not a clod-hopping centre half, Martin Demichelis or Daniel Van Buyten, that did the damage, but another forward, Mario Gomez. It appeared accidental, too, one of those freak incidents in a game. All of Rooney's major injuries have been like that. A kicking he can handle; it is fate that drags him down. Such is Rooney's importance that the result felt almost incidental. Sir Alex Ferguson would have hated that aspect of the post-match inquest, and who can blame him? Rib blow: Bayern equalise after Ribery's free-kick takes a deflection off of RooneyHe will know his best chance of turning this tie around - and Manchester United should be able to do so - resides in Rooney terrorising Bayern Munich with Old Trafford in full voice in the second leg. Franz Beckenbauer had it right. He set Lionel Messi and Rooney apart when he listed the greatest players in football right now and while Louis van Gaal, the Bayern Munich coach, arrogantly tried to dismiss his words of praise for the Englishman before the game, Rooney's performance ensured it was the older man who emerged with his intuitive credibility intact. It is said Rooney cannot be left alone for a minute and he went some way to demonstrating the literal truth of that by scoring after just 64 seconds. Of all the things for the Munich defence to forget, it would have been better if they had taken the field without their boots than neglected to pick up Rooney from the first free-kick of the game. What was it about his four goals in two matches against AC Milan that did not resonate with them? What was it about his glut of headed goals this season that failed to sink in? For from making Rooney their priority as Nani stood over the ball, Munich left him with enough space to successfully negotiate the team bus through a three-point turn. He wisely chose to score a goal instead. Quick off the mark: Rooney fires in the first goal of the night after just 64 secondsAfter Van Gaal's pre-match taunts that Munich has nothing to fear from Rooney, it smacked of dreadful complacency. Crisis? Rooney leaving the Allianz Arena on crutchesOf course, Munich have something to fear from Rooney; every team does. There is no player like him in Europe; even Messi. As Beckenbauer identified, Messi has the skill but Rooney has the strength. He gives up height and weight to his markers, but never gives them an inch. When he turned Van Buyten soon after the first goal, the defender was made to look like a farmer helplessly chasing an angry bull. It is the thought of this drive, replicated in the World Cup finals, or in the Champions League final, that has inspired so many dreams this season. Now there is another image that will not be easily shaken from the mind; that of England's best player rolling in anguish on a playing field in Munich as thousands of Germans celebrated. That they did not even notice him made it even worse. To them it was just a winning goal, for the rest of us it was something far worse. A 2-1 deficit can easily be retrieved; not so our feeling of security. 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