Wayne Rooney: Birmingham City boss does not want Leicester City game to become 'sideshow'
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Birmingham City boss Wayne Rooney has spoken positively about Jamie Vardy going into Monday's game
Birmingham City boss Wayne Rooney says it is important their Championship game against Leicester City on Monday does not get "dragged into a sideshow".
It was set to be the first time he and Foxes striker Jamie Vardy had faced each other since the 'Wagatha Christie' legal battle between their wives, but Vardy will miss the game with injury.
Coleen Rooney won the court case, but her husband is focused on the football.
"It's Birmingham City v Leicester City," Wayne Rooney told BBC Sport.
Speaking before the announcement that Vardy would not be fit for the game, he said: "It's great that there is a global interest in Birmingham City playing Leicester City. [It is] a great platform for our players to show how good they are.
"But it's important that it doesn't all get dragged into a sideshow. Anything else should be about football. My job is just about Birmingham trying to win the game."
Rooney was called to the witness box during last year's case at the High Court - saying he was asked by then England manager Roy Hodgson to ask team-mate Vardy to get his wife Rebekah to "calm down" during Euro 2016, as she had been writing a column in the Sun newspaper.
However, Vardy said the conversation never took place, and Rooney was "talking nonsense".
'I still respect him a lot'
Leicester confirmed that Vardy would be out of Monday's game earlier on Friday,, external because of a knee injury suffered in training that has kept him out of Leicester's past two games.
Rooney still recognises the talent of a man who has scored 177 goals in 446 appearances in his 12 seasons since moving from Fleetwood to the Foxes in 2012.
"In my opinion Jamie Vardy is a fantastic player," Rooney said. "He has been for many years and has been a great servant to Leicester City.
"And he's still a fantastic player. I played with him for England, like I did many players. And he was not someone I had a relationship with outside the game. I respected him a lot and still do.
"But ultimately the game is about Birmingham trying to beat Leicester. That's my only concern."
Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy last played together for England in a 3-0 win over Scotland in November 2016
Monday's meeting between Rooney's mid-table team and Championship leaders Leicester will be the first time the Blues and the Foxes have met in the league in almost 10 years - not since Vardy's late winner at St Andrew's helped the Foxes complete a league double in January 2014.
Back then, Leicester were on their way to the Championship title under Nigel Pearson, followed by the Premier League title two seasons later, a campaign in which Vardy netted in the first of the Foxes' two 1-1 draws with Manchester United when up against Rooney on the field.
Leicester might not even be top by the time they pitch up at St Andrew's, if second-placed Ipswich win Saturday lunchtime's East Anglian derby against Norwich City.
But they will know that Blues' home form has remained solid all season, for all the changes that have been made, having lost just once at St Andrew's in 10 league games - and Ipswich only burgled a point themselves there in early November with two late goals.