The English FA is conducting a “proper investigation” to establish what exactly England captain Wayne Rooney and any of its staff did on Saturday night.
Wayne Rooney has “unreservedly” apologised to interim England manager Gareth Southgate, the FA and football supporters in general following the emergence of “inappropriate” images from The Grove hotel.
It is alleged Rooney dropped in on a wedding party, with the Sun newspaper printing a photo appearing to show the Manchester United forward, wearing an England training top, looking the worse for wear.
Another photo, used by the Mirror newspaper, showed Rooney’s England team-mate Phil Jagielka, the Everton defender, pictured alongside him although not looking worse for wear.
The FA has confirmed that overnight free time, which has been in place for a number of years, will now be reviewed.
The allegations surrounding Rooney include the suggestion that members of England’s backroom staff were with him at the wedding party.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn said: “We’re getting a proper investigation of what actually went on – ‘were there other FA staff involved?’ – and we’re doing a review of it obviously.
“It’s disappointing. I think it’s appropriate he apologised because it doesn’t set a great tone for the England captain but, that said, I don’t want to over-dramatise it either.”
Glenn added: “We’re talking to anyone who was there on Saturday night to find out if anyone from the backroom staff was involved and then we’ll take a view, but we don’t know what the facts are yet.”
In contrast to the FA’s stance, leading Premier League managers have defended Rooney.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp believes a sense of perspective needs to be taken, and whatever went on was “not really serious”.
“I know we’re all on the sunny side of life, we earn a lot of money and do the job we love, but at the end maybe it comes as a surprise that we are also human beings too,” the German said.
“These boys, this generation, is the most professional generation of footballers – not only in England, but (the) England (team), too, that there has ever been.
“All the guys, all the legends we love and admire they drank like devils and smoked like crazy, but they were still good players.
“No one does it any more. I don’t know anyone now.
“We had a Christmas party and I had to fill people’s glasses. It’s about timing – when you are in the wrong time at the wrong place it’s not good as a professional.
“I have no idea where Wayne was, but I’m pretty sure it’s not really serious.”