The 25-year-old was left out of the starting line-up for the 1-1 draw at St James' Park after missing Tuesday morning's training session through illness. This prompted a rebuke from Alan Shearer, who suggested the magnitude of the fixture should have overridden minor physical discomfort, saying on Amazon Prime: "I know he doesn't feel well, but this is Barcelona at Newcastle for a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It would take something extraordinary to keep myself out of this game tonight."
Keane echoed this sentiment on The Overlap, questioning: "How can you be ill but come on for half an hour?"
Rooney, too, was dismissive of the illness claims, saying: "If you're ill, you're ill. You shouldn't be there. He walked past us before the game and wouldn't shake our hands. He said he didn't want us to catch anything, but then he's going into the dressing room with his team-mates."