Ryan Giggs is backing Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney to weather the media storm surrounding his private life and find his true form. Although it initially appeared he would shrug off his problems without a worry, the 24-year-old's form did appear to suffer and now an ankle injury he picked up at Bolton last weekend has ruled him out for three weeks.
As someone who both knows Rooney from having shared the same dressing room for six years and his own experiences in the eye of the media storm when he first broke into United's senior ranks, Giggs has a unique view.
"In my experience the only way to deal with it is to go on the training pitch and work hard," said Giggs, at the launch of his new autobiography, Ryan Giggs: My Life, My Story.
"The rest will eventually come because the quality is there.
"When you are playing at United, you are there to be shot down.
"All you need is to lose a bit of form or you have a few injuries that mean you are not quite firing.
"Wayne set such high standards last season. He was winning games on his own. We knew it could not carry on.
"At the moment he is not scoring goals. But that will change quite soon because he is a world-class player."
But Giggs takes issue with Kevin Keegan's assessment that Rooney's confidence has collapsed.
"I don't see a confidence issue," he said.
"When you are scoring goals you think you are going to score every game. That has always been the same.
"But it is not a worry, for Wayne or United as a team. We have never tried to rely on one player.
"Hopefully that will be the case this year."
