Old Trafford legend Wayne Rooney was the subject of withering comments from Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo during his incendiary interview with Piers Morgan

Rooney and Ronaldo were teammates at Old Trafford for five seasons, winning numerous honours together. Despite his former teammate’s withering comments, the Red Devils’ all-time leading goalscorer appeared reluctant to full burn his bridges with Ronaldo.

Instead, Rooney stressed that Ronaldo is one of the two greatest players of all time and explained that his previous comments were not intended as criticism. He was quizzed on Ronaldo’s interview with Morgan at the 2022 Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on Thursday, where he won the Player Career Award, and replied: “Oh listen, Cristiano’s a fantastic player.

“As I’ve said before, him and [Lionel] Messi are the two best players, probably, ever to play the game. And again, it’s no criticism, what I’ve said is, ‘Age comes to all of us’. Cristiano, obviously, is feeling that and has found it hard to deal with that and, obviously, he’s done an interview and it’s gone global.

“They’re strange, some of the comments, they’re strange, but I’m sure Manchester United will deal with it once they’ve seen the full interview and they’ll take whatever action they need to take.”

As Rooney suspected, United are already weighing up how to respond to Ronaldo’s interview and instructed their lawyers to look into his comments this week. The Red Devils could sack the former Real Madrid and Juventus superstar if his disciplinary breach is found to be serious enough.

On Friday morning, following the broadcast of both parts of the interview, the club released a fresh statement which read: “Manchester United has this morning initiated appropriate steps in response to Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent media interview. We will not be making further comment until this process reaches its conclusion.”