Wayne Rooney reveals horrendous gash that has ruled him out of England World Cup qualifiers

Striker takes to his Facebook page to show the extent of the injury picked up in an accidental clash with Phil Jones

Wayne Rooney has revealed a picture of the gash left in his forehead after a training ground collision with Manchester United and England team-mate Phil Jones, showing the extent of the injury that has forced him out of the crucial World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.

David Moyes left Rooney out of the squad that lost 1-0 to Liverpool on Sunday and revealed before kick-off that it was due to a severe cut the striker suffered in an accidental clash with Jones.

Rooney had come in for criticism from some areas, with recent memories of Paul Ince and Terry Butcher having the head bandaged in order to continue playing while wearing blood stained England shirts.

The 27-year-old resorted to posting two pictures on his official Facebook page, with the first accompanied with a defence of his withdrawal from the national squad.

"Some people seem to be questioning my commitment to the England squad and the fact I had to pull out of the 2 games. There's nothing I would like more than to be helping the lads in the qualifiers. I'm sure people will see from these images the reason why I won't be able to play," Rooney said in the description of the picture.

Health and safety rules have come in since then that force an immediate change of shirt and removal from the pitch if a cut is openly bleeding, but Rooney’s photograph has shown that the cut is much worse than first thought.

His England team-mate Theo Walcott described it as “something out of a horror film” after he saw the injury.

“I have seen a picture and it is a very, very big gash,” Walcott added. “It's not nice to see.

“I have seen the actual injury and it is not a nice sight to be honest. It is not going to help his looks I wouldn't think.”