Wayne Rooney is refusing to allow a disciplinary hearing for England distract him from helping Manchester United against Basel, The Manchester Evening News reports.
Rooney is expected to start against the Swiss side and with United only needing a point to qualify to the knockout stages, the England international will be hopeful he can help the side progress. Rooney will then immediately take a car from Basel to Nyon for tomorrow’s hearing with UEFA’s disciplinary panel. The United forward will argue the three match ban handed to him for his sending off against Montenegro in the final Euro 2012 qualfier.
A ban of that length would see Rooney miss the whole of England’s group stages and despite the pressure over the disciplinary hearing, the 26 year old is focused and raring to go for United’s do-or-die fixture against the Swiss outfit.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said when asked about the potential pressure on Rooney over the hearing: ‘He has a game tonight, an important game. I don’t think that comes into it at all’.
Rooney will be needed, as he and Danny Welbeck are the only two strikers available with the squad in Switzerland. Injuries to Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez have left the Red Devils threadbare up front.
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