Rooney: Stamp not deliberate

Wayne Rooney has insisted that he did not deserved to be sent off against Portugal.

The 20-year-old was red carded for an apparent stamp on defender Ricardo Carvalho, but he maintains that he was merely trying to regain his balance and that catching the Chelsea man was a complete accident.

Rooney was left to rue referee Horacio Elizondo's decision to send him off as The Three Lions crashed out of the tournament on penalties, and he is still bitter about the entire affair.

"In being forced back, I had trod on the player on the ground," Rooney said in his book, serialised in The Mail on Sunday.

"It turned out to be Carvalho. And I was aware that my foot had landed between his legs, which, of course, is about the nastiest place to get hurt, but it was an accident.

"I couldn't believe that the ref, who was so near, hadn't realised that. Perhaps he was too near."

"I'll go to my grave and still maintain it was a complete accident. I hadn't intended to do it. I had my back to the player. I couldn't see him, or where I was putting my foot.

"If you think about it, if I'd done it deliberately, if it had been a definite stamp meant to harm him, the fella would still be in hospital to this day. But he was up on his feet in minutes, no worse for wear."

Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo has been criticised for his part in the dismissal, with many believing that his constant goading of Rooney was to blame.

However, Rooney has defended his Manchester United team-mate's behaviour, revealing that, contrary to reports, Ronaldo was not trying to wind him up from the word go.

"Most commentators, and most people watching on TV back home, thought Ronny was winding me up in the tunnel, especially in the light of what happened afterwards," he explained.

"What we really talked about might come as a bit of a shock, because it was so boring.

"First of all, in the tunnel, we wished each other good luck, hoped it went well, and then he asked me if I'd heard where Quinton Fortune was going.

"Quinton's a friend and team-mate of us both and he was reported to be leaving United, but neither of us knew the latest.

"That was it. We said good luck to each other once more, and then the game began."