SIX CLUB v BABY DILEMMAS

SO Wayne Rooney is apparently willing to miss a Champions League trip to Russia or, more worryingly for Manchester United, the crunch clash with Liverpool in order to attend the birth of his first child.

With Coleen due to give birth around October 24, the chance for Rooney to be excused from the Moscow mission looks a sensible one.

"Of course I want to be here for the birth of my child, and, if anything happens around that time, then I am sure I will stay back," said Rooney this week.

However, whether his manager would be as happy for his star man to sit out the Anfield encounter on October 25 is another matter altogether. Sir Alex Ferguson admitted on Friday he has not spoken to the player about it.

The England striker will be hoping things will not come to a head with an unfortunate clash of dates, particularly as he always reserves even more enthusiasm for the match against boyhood club Everton's neighbours.

We decided to look at a few other instances of players juggling with the club versus baby dilemma.

MARTIN ALLEN

Surely the most famous incident of its nature as hardline Queens Park Rangers boss Trevor Francis fined the midfielder two weeks' wages for missing the game at Newcastle in March, 1989. The midfielder left the team hotel in the North East to board an early-morning flight back to Heathrow. He witnessed the birth of baby George and thought Francis was handing him a congratulatory card on the Monday, only to discover it was a fine instead. With their relationship in tatters, he was soon sold on to West Ham.

XABI ALONSO

In March, 2008, Liverpool's creative midfielder was unavailable for the Champions League encounter at Inter Milan due to the birth of his son. With girlfriend Nagora due to give birth at any time, Alonso asked for more time before flying out to Italy to be with the team. Rafa Benitez insisted: "I cannot wait, wait, wait," and ended up forgetting about playing his popular compatriot. Alonso was sold to Real Madrid this summer despite being a huge fans' favourite at Anfield.

ELANO

The Manchester City ace was excused making a trip to Germany to take on Schalke in last season's Uefa Cup. Although his wife had already given birth, understanding boss Mark Hughes was fully behind his player, stating: "He feels he needs to be with his wife which I fully support." City won 2-0 without the Brazilian to book their place in the last 32 of the competition.

PETR CECH

The giant Chelsea keeper does not miss much but he still regrets being unable to attend the birth of his daughter Adela. "It was the best day of my life and, at the same time, the saddest," he complained. "My daughter decided she was coming in the middle of the night and there was nothing I could do. I was in Liverpool and, if I could have got a flight back to the Czech Republic, I would have missed the birth anyway." The match against Everton instead took precedence for the Blues shot-stopper.

JAMIE CARRAGHER

In 2002, the Liverpool defender's wife Nicola was about to give birth to their first child. When baby James arrived, Carragher was away with his team-mates in Switzerland for a match against Basel. "My obsession with football affected my judgement," confessed the centre back in his autobiography. "I still owe Nicola a massive apology." Team-mate Danny Murphy had tried to convince him to head home instead.

STEVE BOWEY

Newcastle Blue Star v Hucknall Town may not sound the most glamorous match in the world but it was an FA Cup tie after all. Blue Star player-manager Steve Bowey told the local Journal newspaper: "They said it was going to be around 7pm before anything happened. So I asked if I could go to the game. She [wife Nicola] was with her sister and she said it was fine. We won 4-0 in the end and, after holding Lucy, it was an amazing day." Bowey got a call on his mobile phone at half time to let him know the news and he said he did his utmost in the second half to score a goal for his daughter.

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