England

Roy Hodgson praises Wayne Rooney's "mental strength"

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 12 November 2014

Roy Hodgson insists that Wayne Rooney has become mentally tougher and more mature as a result of criticism aimed at him throughout his career.

England manager Roy Hodgson believes that criticism aimed in the direction of Wayne Rooney across his career has helped the striker to become more mature.

The 29-year-old is in line to rack up a century of caps for the Three Lions in Saturday's Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley.

Despite his impressive goalscoring record, Rooney has had to deal with personal attacks ever since breaking into Everton's first team as a youngster, which Hodgson insists has helped him in the long run.

"He burst on to the scene as the wonder kid at 19," he told BBC Sport. "He was the saviour of English football. And he has had to suffer the slings and arrows because of the times when, of course, he has not been able to be the saviour of English football and people have criticised him for it.

"Having built him up to a very high level they have worked very hard to knock him right back down again. I think that has given him an incredible maturity and mental strength that we will need going forward. That's a harder thing to teach or to inculcate in the squad than tactics or technique."

Rooney has scored three goals in four appearances for England this season.