Wayne Rooney 'couldn't approach' Paul Pogba in Man Utd dressing room as concerned phone call revealed

Wayne Rooney said that he felt unable to approach Paul Pogba or Jesse Lingard in the Manchester United dressing room over a social media issue, Rio Ferdinand has claimed.

Rooney played with both Pogba and Lingard towards the end of his Old Trafford career.

He was club captain between 2014 and his exit in 2017, having been at the club for 10 years at the time of his appointment by Louis van Gaal.

On the latest episode of his 'Rio Ferdinand Presents' podcast, Ferdinand brought up an incident during the 2016/17 season, when United were in sixth place in the Premier League and underperforming.

A video was posted on Instagram which showed Pogba and Lingard dancing in the club's home dressing room.

Ferdinand says he felt that was inappropriate given United's struggles at the time, and he personally called captain Rooney to talk about the situation.

He explained that was the moment in which he felt the winning culture at Old Trafford instilled under Sir Alex Ferguson had begun to change, and said: "I rang Wazza when I saw Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard dancing on Instagram when we were sixth in the league.

"I rang Wazza and asked, 'What's happening here?'

"He replied, 'You can't say nothing man, it's not the same anymore'."

Paul Pogba and Wayne Rooney pictured while playing for Man Utd - Getty

Ferdinand's guest, former United defender Phil Jones, added: "Back then, when you look at the dressing room we had - we had so many incredible, powerful leades that wouldn't let anything get in the way of the team's performance and the team winning.

"I think now players perhaps lack the ability to call people out anymore, and the power to tell them, 'That's not what we do at this football club... don't come in here and start behaving like that. That doesn't work here'.

"If we lost a match, we'd have a meeting the next day, not even with the coaches. The leaders would be saying, 'This is not good enough'. After one loss."