FATHER time is undefeated. No matter what happens, humans get older.

For most, he doesn’t affect their work until retirement around 65 but for athletes, Time comes a lot quicker and prevents them from doing what they want to do.

Wayne Rooney is currently battling with getting older and managers have not helped the transition into the latter years of his career.

Someone foolishly told the Manchester United and England captain that his future lies in the middle of the park which is absurd.

Rooney does not have the football intelligence to play that position. Against the worst teams in football, the striker can just about get away with playing in a deep-lying midfield role.

But even then, he is prone to making mistakes which a natural midfielder would not make.

This idea that he is the heir apparent to Paul Scholes is laughable. Scholes is one of the best players to play the position over the past two decades.

Barcelona and their famed youth academy La Masia use him as an example of what a midfielder should be.

The way his head was always on swivel and knowing exactly what he wanted to do before he received the ball is what made him excellent, not to mention his superior range of passing.

It is difficult to describe what he did without video examples but Scholes would pick the ball up from deep and within seconds play a 50-yard diagonal ball to the flanks to launch United forward.

Rooney cannot do that. I was at the Wembley game on Saturday as England defeated Malta. When he picks up the ball, he takes too long to decide where the next pass is going to be and gives defences time to settle.

His long-range passes are floated out wide which means by the time the ball arrives at the feet of his teammate, the opposition have already set-up and to defend that situation.

As with Scholes, it is difficult to explain without having footage in front of you — but you only have to rewatch any match Rooney played for England at Euro 2016 to understand what I am saying.

To think that he excelled in the middle of the park is actually disrespectful to other midfielders. One journalist summed it up perfectly on Monday morning when he said that Rooney is being treated as the kid in school that everyone knew was bad at football so they played him in goal.

It has been decided that Rooney cannot play as a lone striker anymore, that is fine. But what made David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Gareth Southgate believe that centre-midfield was the answer?

It would make sense if he had played there when he was younger, had some kind of idea of experience of the position.

Ryan Giggs was able to transition from a tricky winger into a more central role due to the fact he spent time in his teenage years playing in the middle of the park.

Rooney hadn’t and that comes down to the youth and coaching set-up in England, young footballers are not tried in different positions to gain experience there.

It was fascinating watching Rooney crumble on the international stage and the rest of the media open its eyes to the problem that has been staring others in the face for 18 months and compare that to NFL quarterback Tom Brady 24 hours later.

Brady was coming off a four-game suspension and making his first start of the season for the New England Patriots at the age of 39.

Much has been made of what kind of player Brady will be as he approaches the final few years of his career and if this will be the year Tather Time catches up on him.

Brady has defied logic to get better every year, with some believing he still has another four years left at the elite level.
Judging by Sunday’s performance, he could probably go on for longer.

Brady threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns. That is spectacular. And it stems from how Brady has altered his lifestyle over the past few years.

He has totally changed his diet and game preparation to prolong his career.

That is how you deal with getting older in sport, you adapt. The best players have done it for decades.

Some footballers have turned to yoga, others have accepted reduced roles in the side in order to add an extra year or two to their careers.

However, you don’t sense that with Rooney.

You have seen no alteration to the way he approaches game, no talk of trying to stay in better shape which has been a major problem since he stepped foot into the league as a teenage prodigy at Everton.

Granted, maybe Rooney is approaching things differently and is keeping things to himself. But it isn’t paying off at the moment and if anything, he is regressing at an alarming rate.

Playing up front against Northampton last month should have been a walk in the park for Rooney.

Instead, he struggled to make an impact and was dropped a few days later.

Form is temporary, class is permanent, or so I am told.

Rooney’s first touch, speed and overall level of play will, and has, waned. What you do next is vital.

Rooney needs to accept that this is a new chapter in his career and he won’t be playing every week. That must be extremely difficult but if it is embraced, there is no reason why he can’t stay at United for the rest of his career.

If not, he will find himself spending his last few days as a footballer in a league and country not befitting of England’s record cap and goalscorer and future top-goalscorer for United.

It’s a shame, someone who has achieved so much in the game is struggling so late in his career.

But Father Time eventually catches up with us all, some accept it better than others.