ROONEY NOT ANGRY WITH RONALDO

"The players came over to me, one by one, said things like: 'Don't worry, Wazza, it wasn't your fault...don't be too upset'", says Rooney. "That was when, for the first time, I felt a few tears come into my eyes. I don't cry often. And I hadn't cried when I'd been sent off. I was beginning to feel sad - this time for them, rather than myself. I didn't feel guilty about what had happened because I still felt innocent. But my sending-off had let them down. Because of me, for whatever reason, they'd been made to struggle on with only 10 men."

Rooney said: "I was disappointed by Ronny (Ronaldo) trying to get me carded and I gave him a bit of a push in the chest (on the pitch). But that was it. By the next morning I was no longer angry over what had happened, or even with Ronny. It seemed that the papers were trying to stir it up, rubbishing him, blaming him.

"They reported that, after the game, while I was still in our dressing room, I had tried to get into the Portuguese dressing room in order to hit Ronny. That's not true. By then, such a thought wasn't even going through my mind.

"What the papers didn't know, and probably will never believe, is that on the coach, on the way home after the game, I sent a text to Ronny. I told him to forget about what happened. I wasn't blaming him for interfering. Then I wished him and Portugal good luck in the semis and hoped they got to the final. And I meant it.

"On the BBC studio panel, Alan Shearer said that when I met up with Ronny again in training, I should 'stick one on him'. I think Alan said that in the heat of the moment. England had just been knocked out and he was choked, as we all were. But I never thought like that, not once it was all over."

Talking about the stamp he goes on: "I honestly thought I was going to be awarded a free-kick. Each of the (Portuguese) defenders had fouled me, so I thought, in trying to get the ball off me.

"By this time, Ronny had run up, though it was nothing to do with him, he hadn't been involved in the incident. He appeared to be telling the ref I should get a card. And then to my amazement the ref was putting his hand up in the air. With a red card. For me. I was off. All I felt was disbelief.

"In being forced back, I had trod on the player on the ground, I realised that. It turned out to be Carvalho. And I was aware that my foot had landed between his legs, which, of course, is about the nastiest place to get hurt, but it was an accident.

"If you think about it, if I'd done it deliberately, if it had been a definite stamp meant to harm him, the fella would still be in hospital to this day. But he was up on his feet in minutes, no worse for wear."

Rooney denies that he has a problem with anger and says that he will not have therapy to curb his frequent red cards. He said: "Another paper said I was going to have anger management therapy. They even named a Manchester woman I had gone to, and was going to see again, so they said. It was all rubbish. I've never seen such a person, and never would.

"Other papers said I was a disgrace, I'd behaved like a thug. Well, that's their opinion. But it's all wrong. Standing on Carvalho was a total accident."