ROOONEY VS. RONALDO – THE TRUTH

‘And angry England striker Rooney — dubbed Wazza by pals — has confided to team-mates that “The only way he would like to bury the hatchet is in Ronaldo's head.”

‘The two Man Utd colleagues were urged yesterday to privately settle the row sparked on Saturday when Portuguese winger Ronaldo appeared to beg the ref to send Rooney off during England's World Cup quarter-final defeat.

‘Club manager Sir Alex insisted it was for the sake of United's future hopes of Premiership glory.

‘But Rooney, 20, was further infuriated when cheeky Portugeezer Ronaldo claimed on a website his red-carded rival had CONGRATULATED him after the match — and wished him well in the World Cup.

‘And rather than healing the wounds, the pair's rift opened wider last night as raging Rooney issued a thinly-veiled statement revealing his agony at his dismissal.

‘The £30million striker insisted he bore “no ill-feeling to Cristiano” but was “disappointed that he chose to get involved”.

‘That line was a direct refusal to make peace with his club-mate and a barely-concealed dig.

‘Earlier, Rooney had reluctantly agreed to send 21-year-old Ronaldo a brief text after Sir Alex told them to patch things up. Last night a club source said: “It's driving him mad — he is still spitting. He sent a brief text after he was asked to make peace with Ronaldo — even though Ferguson has been telling everyone he can see why Wayne would want to punch Christano and settle the score. Ferguson can definitely see Wayne's point of view.

“He was still seething yesterday — and then to make matters worse he hears that Ronaldo is calling them the best of buddies.

“Wayne's statement doesn't need much reading between the lines. It's pretty obvious from his comments, especially where he says that he is an honest player and was appalled by the amount of cheating going on.

“He feels totally stitched-up by Carvalho, but the real betrayal is Ronaldo. They were good friends and team-mates and whatever Ferguson tries to do it's difficult to see how this can be resolved.”

The Sun also includes the line, ‘Rooney — who had previously threatened to split Ronaldo in two with a pickaxe,' which, less than a year after the death of Anthony Walker – killed with a pickaxe at the hands of a scouser who had a brother playing for a Manchester team – was probably not the most tasteful thing.