Former England manager Roy Hodgson has said that Wayne Rooney did not receive sufficient support from the FA after the publication of photographs which showed the striker drinking at a wedding reception following international duty against Scotland.
The England captain was pictured looking intoxicated in the early hours of the morning and apologised for what was deemed inappropriate behaviour. However, Rooney also hit out at the media for an invasion of privacy, while the FA was recently blasted by Gary Neville over their handling of the incident.
Wayne Rooney was not supported enough after drinking incident, insists Roy Hodgson https://t.co/8aM5UmLs5V pic.twitter.com/GVtFxU0pCx
And Hodgson, who resigned as England boss following a Euro 2016 exit to Iceland in the summer, told the Timesthat Rooney was made to be a scapegoat, saying: "In this particular instance there should have been more joint responsibility.
"Wayne understood it was a bad moment in time and, in an ideal world, something he shouldn't do. But if anyone was caught we would expect all of us to come out and say, 'Yeah, look, you're right'.
"I wouldn't have said it is awful, I would be saying things like: "They had the night off, yes we imposed on them the message not to do this but they are human beings. We'd just had a good result. Have you never gone out and had a drink? Have you never let your hair down, have you never done something you shouldn't do? Is there nothing in your life where you look back and you're ashamed of it?".
"I would also have expected all those other guys to say, 'Hold on, don't just blame him, I was there too'. I'm not going as far as to blame the FA, I'm just saying I'm disappointed in the group. It doesn't matter that it was Phil Jagielka with Rooney and not, say, Joe Hart. It was another Premier League player and I'm disappointed in Phil a little."