Wayne Rooney World Cup news: England forward takes to Facebook to blast sections of the media who criticised extra training session
England striker took extra shooting practice alone on Monday
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Your support makes all the difference.Wayne Rooney has hit out at sections of the media who said he trained with England's 'reserves' yesterday.
Rooney received criticism for his performance in Manaus on Saturday night, where he was ineffective on the left hand side.
The Manchester United man provided the assist for Daniel Sturridge's equaliser, but failed to leave his mark on the game and struggled to provide Leighton Baines with adequate cover.
Rooney did move into his preferred central position eventually, but England couldn't find a way back and lost 2-1 to Italy.
At England's Urca training base yesterday Rooney did a light warm down away from the other nine outfield players who started against Italy, then stayed behind for extra shooting practice.
Some questioned whether England boss Roy Hodgson had done so in a bid to recapture his form.
Rooney took to his Facebook page to defend himself.
"Sometimes wonder what the press are getting at," he posted
"I said from the start I want to do everything I can to make sure I'm ready for these World Cup games and as part of that I was doing extra training a week before the squad joined up.
"That's exactly what I did yesterday, my own extra training because that's what I wanted to do."
Gary Neville last night insisted that Hodgson and the England coaching staff were more than happy with Rooney's contribution in the Arena Amazonia.
"My opinion is that Wayne Rooney, after seeing him every day in training, is a very important player," said Neville on BBC Radio 5Live.
"He is our top goalscorer under Roy, he is our main assist man and probably but for a yard he would have been man of the match if he had scored that goal.
"We came off the pitch the other night and had our coaching debrief with Roy, Ray (Lewington), Dave (Watson) and myself and there was no other suggestion that Wayne Rooney had played pretty well for us in that game, that he had done everything we asked for."
Neville was unhappy with the criticism of Rooney, saying the nation always has an "obsession" with one player at a major tournament, with Rooney the man currently in the firing line.
"You can call it a debate or an obsession," he added.
"I don't think either are wrong because every time I have been part of a tournament I have seen this with a player, whether it be (Paul) Gascoigne, (Michael) Owen, (David) Beckham or Rooney.
"We love it. The whole country loves creating a drama around one player."
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