The FA have made contact with current Derby County manager Wayne Rooney after he confessed to wearing longer studs in a match against Chelsea 16 years ago, with the deliberate intention to "hurt someone."
The former England star admitted that Manchester United's inferiority to the title-winning Chelsea side of 2006 left him feeling so frustrated he purposefully changed his stud length for when the sides met at the tail-end of the season.
As a result, the Football Association have said that they will investigate Rooney's claim further and have already made contact with the Rams boss according to the Athletic.
The incident occurred when United made the trip down to West London knowing anything less than a Red Devils win would effectively hand Chelsea their second successive Premier League title.
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The Blues were too hot to handle and ran riot against United, who fell to a 3-0 defeat on a day that was marred by Rooney's dangerous tackle on Chelsea stalwart John Terry.
"I always wore the old plastic studs with the metal tip and for that game I changed into big, long metal ones, the maximum length you could have because I wanted to try to hurt someone, to try to injure someone,” said Rooney.
"I did it, because John Terry left the stadium on crutches. I left a hole in his foot and then I signed my shirt to him after the game... and a few weeks later I sent it to him and asked for my stud back!
"If you look back on the pictures after the game, JT is celebrating - but he’s on crutches from that tackle.
"We knew if Chelsea won then they had won the League that day, but you knew they would win because you could feel they were a better team at that time.
“It was more frustration from the time. Jose Mourinho was there, JT, Lamps and they had a great team.
"I just knew it would get to me, that I could boil over and it was almost a protection of myself but also a feeling that if you can’t win then not let them enjoy it as much as they want to."
There is clearly no animosity between Rooney and Terry nowadays, with the latter taking to Twitter to jokingly respond to the claims.
"@WayneRooney is this when you left your stud in my foot?" wrote the former Chelsea skipper.
The same Athletic report states how the FA have reportedly asked Rooney to provide his own observations surrounding the claims in question.
Ironically, Rooney would go on to suffer a serious injury himself later on in the same game that nearly scuppered his chances of appearing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
