Klopp defends Rooney

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has defended Wayne Rooney after photos emerged of him looking drunk while on international duty.

The Sun newspaper published images of Rooney looking the worse for wear at the team's hotel on Saturday night, the day after England's 2018 World Cup qualifying win over Scotland.

The Manchester United captain, who missed England's friendly against Spain three days later, issued a statement on Wednesday to apologise for the images, but Klopp believes the situation has been blown out of proportion.

"He has apologised for having a glass of whatever? I really feel for the players. There is a human being behind the kid," Klopp told reporters on Thursday.

"I really feel for the players. I know we are all on the sunny side of life, and we earn a lot of money, and do the job we love. But at the end, maybe it’s a surprise that there are human beings behind the kit.

"Sometimes you are invited to something - and maybe it’s a wedding and a birthday - and we can play the professional role and say: 'No we don’t drink and if you smoke please go 20 yards between me and you because I don’t want to be a passive smoker’. That’s not how life works.

"These boys, this generation, is the most professional generation of footballers. All the legends you still love and all the guys you still admire, they drank like devils and they smoked like crazy, and they were still good players! Nobody does that anymore. These guys are professional players.

"It’s all about timing and when you are in the wrong moment at the wrong place, then it’s always in the life not good as a professional player. I have no any idea where Wayne was, but I’m pretty sure it was not really serious."

Setanta Sports is now eir Sport. We have 6 great channels of live sport including eir Sport 1 & 2 and all 4 BT Sport channels. The eir Sport pack is free to all eir broadband customers. To learn more about setting sport free visit www.eir.ie/sport .