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Thursday, February 22, 2024

Euro 2016 - Rooney Missed Out

 

Adam Rooney missed out on playing in Euro 2016.

Now assistant manager at Hereford, Rooney was with Aberdeen at the time and in the 2014/15 season had scored 18 goals.

In May 2015 he was called into the Republic of Ireland side to play England in a friendly and then a Euro 2016 qualifer against Scotland.

By February 2016 he had already scored 19 goals but then he picked up a hamstring injury which sidelined him for eight games.

And after returning he had a recurrance of the injury which kept him out of Aberdeen's final three games of the season.

The injury could not have happened at a worse time for Rooney as it was almost certain he would have played for his country.

"I had got into the squad and managed to get on the bench a couple of times, but I was never able to actually step onto the pitch and win a cap," he said.

"I was really unfortunate, as I done my quad around the time of the friendlies (against Switzerland and Slovakia) before the tournament in March.

"I done my quad against Inverness and was out for around six weeks earlier. I came back and scored against Motherwell but ended up getting injured again because I was pushing to get back for the final Ireland friendlies (against the Netherlands and Belarus) at the end of May.

"I remember every other Irish striker seemed to be injured at time. I imagine I would have featured in those friendlies in the build-up to the tournament and the opportunity might have came from there.

"But it wasn't to be, as sometimes in football, you can pick up an injury at the wrong time. It was nice to be involved in the Irish set-up and make the bench for some of the EURO qualifiers. It would have been great to get on the pitch but it wasn't to be."