Wayne Rooney takes swipe at Roy Keane over Cristiano Ronaldo defence

Wayne Rooney has called out Roy Keane for his recent defence of Cristiano Ronaldo following the Portuguese forward’s infamous walkout at Old Trafford last month.

Ronaldo refused to take Erik ten Hag’s instructions to warm-up when the manager wanted to bring him off the bench in the dying minutes against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, however, he decided to take an early bath instead.

It caused a media storm at Old Trafford and Ten Hag was left with no other choice but to axe Ronaldo from his squad for the trip to Stamford Bridge. The Portuguese veteran has returned to the squad but it remains to be seen if he will spend the rest of the season in Manchester.

Throughout all of this, Ronaldo found an unlikely source of sympathy from Roy Keane, who backed the 37-year-old in an argument with former teammate Gary Neville.

Rooney has now suggested that Keane, who held extremely high standards in the dressing room at United, was something of a hypocrite with his remarks because he would not have stood for such petulance as as a player.

Speaking to Ray Parlour on talkSPORT, Rooney said: “Him and Messi are arguably the two best players of all time and you can go either way with that, whatever way you decide.

“But I just think the things he has done from the start of the season, it is not acceptable for Manchester United. I’ve seen Roy Keane defending him. Roy wouldn’t accept that. Roy wouldn’t accept that at all.

“It is a distraction which Manchester United don’t need at at the minute, trying to rebuild.

“For Cristiano, just get your head down and work and be ready to play when the manager needs you. If he does that, he will be an asset. If he doesn’t, it will become an unwanted distraction.”

I think Rooney would know since he shared a dressing room with Keane.

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