Frank Lampard responds to Wayne Rooney's claims that he was tucked into bed during international duty

The England legend has responded to Rooney’s claim.

Frank Lampard has denied Wayne Rooney’s claim that he used to get massaged to sleep while on England duty.

Lampard earned 106 caps for England and featured at four major tournaments, and was a member of the Three Lions ‘golden generation’.

Wayne Rooney was also part of that illustrious squad, and he recently claimed that Lampard and John Terry used to receive late-night muscle massages from Chelsea’s masseur Billy McCulloch.

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While it’s true that McCulloch was close with Lampard and Terry and so started working at England camps during Steve McLaren’s tenure as manager, Lampard has refuted Rooney’s claim that he was massaged to sleep.

“I need to have a word with him because I call it selective memory, I don’t know what I’ll call it, maybe he has got the wrong end of the stick,” Lampard – who is in Germany providing punditry on Euro 2024 for the BBC – said on BBC 5Live podcast, Football Daily.

“I certainly never had my feet rubbed to make me fall asleep in my room. I’m just going to correct [it] here, I’m not going to speak for John [Terry].

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During an appearance on the Stick to Football podcast, Rooney claimed that the two Chelsea legends received massages while they were going to sleep.

“I used to get one [massage] at 9pm, but the last ones after me were always JT [Terry] and Lamps [Lampard],” Rooney said.

“Bill, who was the Chelsea masseur, was there and he’d massage them, then they’d go into bed and get their feet out under the bed, and he’d massage them until they fell asleep.

Lampard denied that he and Terry received late night massages from the Chelsea masseur (Getty)
Lampard denied that he and Terry received late night massages from the Chelsea masseur (Getty)

“Massage their feet until they fell asleep then he tucked them in. I swear.”

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Lampard responded: “The story is, Billy the masseur, who was at Chelsea and was at England for a period of time, we were all very close.

“Naturally, we would work with Billy in the medical room and do work, which is very normal. I’m sure Wayne’s had a similar situation.

“I’m just trying to picture myself falling asleep and Billy’s finishing and quietly leaving the room. I would have been quite uncomfortable with that, and I love Billy.

“It absolutely didn’t happen. I’ve got witnesses, speak to Billy, get him on or whatever. It didn’t happen.”