By Felix Keith
Wayne Rooney was knocked out cold by a former Manchester United team-mate after a drunken fight went wrong following an afternoon at the pub.
Rooney spent the afternoon in the boozer with Phil Bardsley and other friends in March 2015. After going back to Rooney’s house, the duo decided it would be wise to have a sparring match in the kitchen, donning boxing gloves for the bout.
An infamous video captured what happened next: Rooney catching a jab from Stoke defender Bardsley and hitting the deck with a thump. Rooney brushed the controversy off pretty quickly, making light of the knockout in a goal celebration days later.
Bardsley has now recalled what happened that night. "It was in his house, we'd been out watching a couple of Super Sunday games and had a skinful – probably too many than what we should have done to be honest,” he told talkSPORT.
"But boys will be boys, it was a Sunday afternoon, we got a little bit carried away. We ended up back at Wayne's house, had a little bit of a spar, one thing led to another and next minute there's blood all over the kitchen and all sorts.
"The video was getting sent around, which is a little bit embarrassing from our point of view, considering he was at United at the time as captain and I was at Stoke.
"It was a little bit embarrassing at the time but it is what it is, it's one of those things where you've probably had too many drinks." He added: "We'd all had a few drinks so it was one of them, the timing was spot on, my jab is pretty accurate to be honest."
Bardsley previously revealed on the UTD Podcast : "He just walked into a jab. He was only out for a couple of seconds but we were all panicking – what's going on here?
"We didn't know what to do, panic stations and we had no phone signal. We were all thinking, 'If he doesn't open his eyes, we can't phone an ambulance, there's no signal'. So much panic! Anyway, he comes around, goes to the sink. I've got a big cut lip, blood everywhere and he's got some blood under his nose and we're just looking at each other and laughing."
As Mirror Football exclusively revealed, Rooney fancies himself as a boxer and was in talks to appear in the next Misfits Boxing event. The 38-year-old is pondering his next move after being sacked as Birmingham manager and has a link with the sport.
"Boxing is the sport I like watching the most," he told Eddie Hearn's BBC podcast in 2019. "My dad boxed and my whole family. I have grown up with boxing. My uncle is still running the gym in Croxteth, which he has ran for 20 to 30 years. It is just something that is in me as well. Thankfully I wasn't as good at boxing as I was at football, so I think my career went the right way it was meant to!"
Asked by Gary Neville on the Stick to Football podcast whether he was lining up a fight, Rooney replied: “Never know. No, erm they’ve been in touch and asked the question but at the minute I want to focus on getting back into management, not boxing.”
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