Documentary tells definitive story of the 12 days that changed Rooney’s life forever

As he had done all tournament, the teenage striker instilled panic in the opposition. Portuguese centre-half Jorge Andrade came across, and the two players came together, Andrade accidentally trod on the side of Rooney’s right foot.

It caused Rooney’s boot to fly off, but he attempted to play on.

At first, it seemed like an innocuous moment, but within a minute, Rooney was sitting on the grass and in obvious pain.

“The nation will hold its breath here,” said BBC commentator John Motson. England were 1-0 up at the time, with one eye on the semi-finals and a step closer to their first major trophy in 38 years.

We now know that a metatarsal bone – the bane of English international players during the noughties – had fractured in Rooney’s right foot.

For him, Euro 2004 was over.

Portugal eventually won an absorbing match on penalties after a 2-2 draw, sending Sven-Göran Eriksson’s England crashing out in familiar fashion.

Before Rooney tangled with Andrade, the Croxteth-born teenager had been in outstanding form, and his meteoric rise since his iconic debut goal as a 16-year old for Everton against Arsenal in 2002 was reaching new highs.

But injury would intervene to ensure that all the lofty talk of him being England saviour remained just that.

Soon after the tournament, Rooney left the Toffees for Manchester United in a £25.6million deal, and in his first game for the club, he scored a hat-trick in the UEFA Champions League against Fenerbahce.

From then on, he would become a key figure in one of the most successful spells in the history of the Red Devils and, to this day, he remains the club’s record goalscorer.

But for the national team, there were to be arguably more downs than ups for the player.

Rooney was sent off against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup, while the side went out in the first round in Brazil 2014 and he was substituted as England fell to a second-round defeat against Iceland at Euro 2016.

Indeed, his international tournaments were a smorgasbord of disappointments.

Twenty years on from Euro 2004, this documentary tells definitive story of the 12 days that changed Rooney’s life forever.

Told first-hand, ‘Wazza’ reflects on the highs and lows of that tournament in Portugal.

Wet see how Rooney was instantly loved by England fans for his passion and ferocious will to win, and how he stunned the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry in the opening match against France, before starring in wins over Switzerland and Croatia.

Michael Owen, a key member of England’s golden generation and a player who experienced his own teenage breakthrough at the 1998 World Cup in France, gives his own account of sharing the pitch with Rooney, whose four goals in the first three games had expectant England fans believing this could be their time.

But after disaster struck, Rooney was made to watch his team’s painful exit on penalties from a Portuguese hospital bed.

And supporters of the Three Lions were left with those all-too familiar feelings of what might have been.