Protect Rooney and Messi from World Cup hitmen

London: England manager Fabio Capello has appealed to a key World Cup official to ensure that stars such as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Argentina superman, Lionel Messi, are protected from opponents who may target them in South Africa.

Rooney's ankle ligament injury and the suggestion that Bayern Munich singled him out for rough treatment in Manchester United's Champions League exit in midweek — have underlined how important the striker is to England's World Cup fortunes, while Messi's demolition of Arsenal in the competition the previous day showed his ability to take the game to a higher level.

Injury and incident have marred Rooney's previous experiences of major championships.

He broke a metatarsal at Euro 2004 and was sent off against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup, and Capello knows similar events this summer could ruin England's World Cup hopes. Capello moved to protect his key man at the Fifa World Cup workshop at Sun City earlier this year when he and assistant Franco Baldini sought to influence Fifa's head of referees, Jose Maria Garcia Aranda. No Fifa official could undertake to look after a specific player, because that would lay him open to charges of favouritism. So Capello used a clever ploy to achieve his objective.

A source close to the England management said: "The conversation with Garcia Aranda had to be in defence of all the World Cup's big stars, not just Rooney. The argument had to hold good for the likes of Messi and Ronaldo as well.

"They made their point by emphasising to Garcia Aranda how important it is for the best players to be protected from opposition players who might only be interested in removing them by foul means."

Garcia Aranda, well aware of Rooney's status, would have understood that protection for England's star striker was Capello's priority.

The source added: "Fifa's head of referees seemed to agree that everything should be done to protect the most talented players in the world. Now it is a question of waiting to see whether the referees will follow up that assurance by announcing stiff penalties for anyone seeking to target great players like Rooney."

Capello believes they will and felt able to say later: "Wayne Rooney knows what is waiting in South Africa — and the referees also know."

The feeling in the England manager's camp was that Capello's plea for protection for the game's top players would strike a chord with Fifa, particularly after what had happened four years ago at the last World Cup in Germany, when the final was destroyed as a spectacle by Materazzi's clash with Zinedine Zidane.