Page 40 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

South Korea, weeks after breaking his metatarsal in the Champions League tie at Old Trafford in the
spring of 2002. That was quite a drama.
Although David sustained the same metatarsal injury that was to afflict Wayne Rooney four years
later, there was a difference in the recovery process. David was a naturally fit type of guy. Wayne

needed more work to bring him back to sharpness. So I calculated that David might be fit enough for
the World Cup, and said so openly at the time.
In the event, when England arrived in Japan, he might still have been carrying the remnants of his
injury. It’s hard to tell with some players, because in their desperation to play in a World Cup, they
tell you they are fine. From the evidence of the tournament, David couldn’t have been all right. The
proof that physical frailty was still preying on his mind could be seen when he jumped over a tackle
near the touchline in a sequence of play that led to Brazil’s equaliser in the quarter-final in Shizuoka.

I was surprised at how physically off the pace he seemed, because he was such a fit boy. So he
couldn’t have been fit, either physically or mentally. People accused me, because I’m Scottish, of not
wanting England to do well. If England played Scotland today, bloody right, I wouldn’t want England
to do well. But I had more players in my teams who were representing England than any other
country, and always wanted them to shine.
When you have a player of Beckham’s profile (and I had another later, in Rooney), there is a

convergence of medical staff always wanting to interfere. England’s medical staff would want to
come to the training ground. Often I felt that this was an insult to us. I wondered whether my
Scottishness was a factor, a reason not to trust me.
Before the 2006 World Cup, when Rooney joined up late with England’s squad in Germany,
England were texting us virtually every day, asking how he was, as if we couldn’t look after him
ourselves. The panic was wild. They were petrified. In 2006 I was 100 per cent correct. Wayne
Rooney should not have played in that tournament. He was not ready.

He should never have been called to Baden-Baden where England were based. It was unfair to
him, to the rest of the players and to the supporters. Wayne was the great hope of that team, of course,
which added to the pressure to overlook reality. With David I was confident he would turn up in good
shape because I knew his record and had seen all the statistics. He was easily the fittest player at Old
Trafford. In pre-season training, in the bleep tests, he was streets ahead of everyone. We told England
we were sure David would be fit in time.

The obsession with David’s recovery was predictable. An oxygen tent found its way to Carrington.
We had good results from that device on Roy Keane’s hamstring injury before a European game.
Bones are a different matter. The cure is rest. It’s time. A metatarsal is a six- to seven-week injury.
In the 2002 World Cup, England failed to make much of an impact. Against Brazil, they were
outplayed by ten men. In the first group game, they played long ball against Sweden, who knew the
English game, and so were hardly likely to be caught off-guard by direct play.
It’s an indictment of England teams at youth level that so many have fallen back on this outdated

tactic. Too many played long ball. On one occasion we made a point of monitoring Tom Cleverley in
the U-21s against Greece, and our scouts reported that England played one up, with two wide –
Cleverley being one of the wide players – and Tom didn’t get a kick. Chris Smalling played and kept
launching the ball forward. This is the area where England were always likely to be caught out.
Because they don’t have enough technical and coaching ability, the years from 9 to 16 are thrown
away.

So how do they compensate? The boys compete, physically. Great attitude, they have. Sleeves up.
But they don’t produce a player. They are never going to win a World Cup with that system, that