Thank God! Rooney reveals horror injury was a millimetre away from being fatal

Published: 17:50 EDT, 7 September 2012 | Updated: 17:50 EDT, 7 September 2012

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The horrific wound that has ruled Wayne Rooney out for a month came within a millimetre of puncturing the femoral artery in his thigh, the striker revealed on Friday.

Manchester United’s doctors told Rooney of the potentially fatal situation after he was carried off at Old Trafford two weeks ago when Fulham striker Hugo Rodallega’s studs sliced a six-inch gash down the inside of his right leg.

Left untreated, a patient will bleed to death within 10 minutes once the artery is punctured.

Severe: Wayne Rooney was forced to leave the pitch on a stretcher

‘I was lucky, to be honest, because it was a millimetre away from my artery,’ said Rooney, who has to miss England’s two opening World Cup qualifiers. It could have been a lot worse than it was. Thank God I was quite fortunate. It didn’t hurt me at all. I got up ready to play on and I was holding my leg up to the referee to say I needed a physio or doctor.

‘I asked the doctor if I could walk off. My son was in the crowd and I didn’t really want Kai seeing me carried off on a stretcher. But he told me it was too dangerous and I had to get on it.

‘The doc said a lot of players would have seen it and fainted. They tried to cover it up from me in the dressing room and put something in to stop it being infected, but I told them I wanted to watch.’

In interviews with the Manchester Evening News and Sky Sports News to publicise his new autobiography, Rooney, 26, admitted the biggest mistake of his career was asking to leave United in October 2010. He was persuaded to sign a new contract and now hopes to spend the rest of his career at Old Trafford.

‘I was sat at home and realised I’d made a mistake,’ said Rooney. ‘I went to see (chief executive) David Gill and the manager and apologised. They could have turned round and made it very difficult for me but, thankfully, within 12 hours I’d signed a new contract. Since then we haven’t spoken about it.

‘It’s an episode that I’m not proud of. I had to rebuild that relationship with the fans, because obviously they were upset as well, and with my team-mates. Let’s be honest, where else can you go from this football club? It’s probably the biggest in the world.

Incident: Rooney was caught by Hugo Rodallega's boot

Rooney, who also revealed Sir Alex Ferguson registered his interest in him by phoning his parents when he was 13, said: ‘I’ve said many times that as long as I’m wanted here then I will be a United player. I still want to be playing here 10 years from now.’

He admitted he is sick of the sight of Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp goal to clinch the Premier League title for rivals Manchester City on an unforgettable final day in May.

‘For everyone at United it was a nightmare,’ he said. ‘To go from thinking you’ve won the league to discovering, 20 seconds later, that you haven’t is a horrible feeling.

‘I’ve tried not to watch it since but I’m sick of seeing Aguero’s goal. It’s everywhere. When we’ve won league titles I’ve never seen a goal replayed so many times.

‘When we came back I could sense a great energy in the dressing room to try and win that title back.

Sickening: Rooney hates catching sight of Sergio Aguero's strike

‘The manager said before the start of the season that when we go two or three up we tend sometimes to save our legs a little bit, but now he wants us going to the end for the fourth or fifth goal. He’s determined for that not to happen again and I certainly wouldn’t like to be in the dressing room if it did.

‘It will obviously be United and City again this season but Chelsea will always be in there. I think Brendan Rodgers is a good manager and, as much as it pains me to say it, I think, with the history of the club, Liverpool will probably come back.’

After Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick in Rooney’s absence at Southampton on Sunday, the England striker dismissed suggestions he will benefit from the added competition.

Back to business: Rooney can't wait to return to the pitch

‘I don’t think so really,’ he said. ‘You can’t assume you’re going to play but I have always worked very hard to make sure the manager has got to play me.It’s great for us now. I’m looking forward to getting back into the team and trying to forge an understanding with him.’

Rooney insists he has matured as a player and that being a father to Kai has made him more responsible since he was banned for a foul-mouthed rant into a television camera at West Ham in April last year.

‘You want to try to do right by your kids,’ said Rooney. ‘The incident at West Ham, I was really disappointed in myself and I made a conscious effort to stop silly things like that because I didn’t want my kid seeing his dad do that on the TV.’