JOSE MOURINHO has torn into the FA for not looking after Wayne Rooney on his night of shame.
Now the Manchester United boss fears the England controversy has affected the mental state of his captain ahead of Saturday’s clash with Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Mourinho claims Roo is fit to face the Gunners, despite being sent home from international duty.
He said: “When a player goes to the national team, he belongs to the national team.
“I learned since I was a kid, if someone lends me something, I have to take even better care than if it was mine.
“At school if your friend lends you a pencil, you have to take care of the pencil better than if it was your pencil.
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“So I think when one day if I become a national team manager, I will try, try, I am not saying that I will be successful on that.
“I am not being critical of Gareth or anyone.
“But I think you have to build something to protect what is not yours when someone lends you something.”
Rooney was pictured drunk in the early hours of Sunday at the England team hotel, leading to him publicly apologising for his behaviour.
But rather than slam his 31-year-old forward, Mourinho has laid the blame at the door of the authorities.
And he said it was impossible to protect a player from criticism fired at them.
He said: “Even if you build a wall around them, to try to feel protected from what people write or think about you, the wall always has points of fragility. It always has some little holes.
“We are flesh and blood, so I think it has an effect.”
Mourinho also believes other England players deserved more criticism than Rooney.
He added: “If you go one by one, to see where these 23 players were, some of them were in worse places than the hotel bar.”
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