England stars give Rooney backing

England's stars have come out in support of Wayne Rooney after he was sent off in the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Portugal.
The 20-year-old saw red for stamping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho as England went out on penalties. But team-mate Steven Gerrard said: "Wayne Rooney won't get any blame from me because I love him and he's done so much for this team. He's also going to do so much for England in the future as well."
Gerrard was unhappy with the reaction of Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo rushed to referee Horacio Elizondo demanding punishment for Rooney.
Gerrard said: "I saw that, and if it was one of my team-mates I'd be absolutely disgusted in him. I've seen Ronaldo going over giving the card and I think he's bang out of order. If I was playing against my team-mates from Liverpool and they were involved in a situation like that, I'd never try and get them sent off."
Fifa is to investigate Rooney for violent conduct, and Ronaldo has denied he tried to get him dismissed. I only said to the referee that it was a foul, only that. I never asked for the red card," said the winger.
But England defender John Terry added to the chorus of support for Rooney and the condemnation of the Portugal player.
He said: "Wayne should have had the free-kick 15 or 20 seconds before anything like that happened. Any other team, any other player, they go down the ref gives a foul but we are honest. Wayne tried to stay on his feet and tried to win the ball. He's got two people fighting against him. That's the honesty we show. The ref gave a ridiculous yellow card against me. It's disappointing with players in the Premier League as well, some team-mates as well. It's disappointing to see them being the ones come running over."
Peter Crouch revealed Rooney's England colleagues had consoled the distraught young striker in the dressing room later.
He said: "Wayne was devastated. We've gone in the dressing room and his head was down to the floor. Sven-Goran Eriksson took him off for a word and consoled him. A couple of lads put their arm around him. It was the same with all of the lads. We have just got to pick ourselves up. It's a bitter blow. You don't want to go out in the quarter-finals."