Wayne Rooney: Phil Foden’s last appearance was a ‘charity substitute’

Foden has now collected 18 trophies since breaking into the first team as a teenager, and has been called up to the expanded England squad for upcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.

But there are question marks over whether he will participate in this summer’s World Cup finals, while he failed to feature on the bench in last week’s Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid, as City suffered a 5-1 aggregate loss.

Speaking on the BBC’s Wayne Rooney programme, the former Manchester United striker said: “I felt sad for him, but I did not feel sad because he participated in the cup final.”

“There was a game a few days ago where he wasn’t even on the pitch. If Max Daumann had come on at the end, you would have thought it was a good experience. But to see Phil Foden come on in the cup final, it seemed like a charity to get him on the pitch.”

“I don’t know what happened, he’s a big player. It’s strange that he can’t get close to the team. It seems like something happened there.

“I thought Foden was in good form but suddenly we didn’t see him getting any minutes. Firstly he will be happy for them to win the cup but from a selfish point of view, he wanted to be there and have an impact.

“It’s going to be tough for him.”