Rooney hairdryer habit returns on BBC during England-Mexico

Wayne Rooney was again pulled into a familiar conversation on BBC coverage of England’s World Cup last-16 clash against Mexico, forced to explain why he sleeps with a hairdryer on—after lightning delays pushed the match back and the pundits needed time to fill

The hairdryer returned to the spotlight long before kickoff.

During the BBC’s coverage of England’s World Cup last-16 clash against Mexico, Wayne Rooney—one of the pundits on the panel—found himself drawn back into his most unusual bedtime habit as the broadcast struggled to bridge the minutes.

The match had been scheduled to kick off at 6pm local time (1am UK), but lightning threats forced the stadium to activate its thunderstorm protocol less than an hour before the start. The game was delayed and would now commence at 7pm (2am UK).

With the show trying to keep viewers entertained, Rooney’s sleeping routine quickly became the topic. Match of the Day host Kelly Cates brought it up. tying it to past controversies around teammates’ pre-game or rest routines. She said: “This is going back to Frank Lampard and the physio isn’t it. where he used to rub his feet to get him to sleep and that caused a lot of controversy.”.

Rooney responded immediately, flipping the focus to the hairdryer. He said: “To be fair, I think I used to keep Harty (Joe Hart) up a few times with the hairdryer.”

Cates followed up by leaning into the implication that the two men had form. She said: “See, I told you that you both have a previous for keeping people up till the early morning,” with Micah Richards asking, “What’s the hairdryer story?”

When Rooney was pressed to clarify, he said: “It’s been out there,” and Richards replied, “Well, we’ve got an hour to fill.”

Rooney then described exactly what happens when he’s trying to sleep. He said: “If I’m in a hotel by myself sleeping by myself, I’d sleep with the hairdryer on and Harty used to room next to me when we were with England and he’d know when I was asleep because he heard the hairdryer going off.”

The detail caught Joe Hart off guard. Hart said: “I didn’t even know him that well, I thought he was hoovering.”

Rooney also revisited why he chooses the habit, describing it as something he has kept up for years. He said: “If I’m in bed on my own, I sleep with the hairdryer on.. the whole night.”

He added specifics about how he runs it. Rooney said: “I have it on cold. On my kids’ lives, I sleep with the hairdryer on and it’s in the bed right next to me blowing on my head. I’ve got two fans next to my bed as well.”

The exchange didn’t end there. Hart’s reaction suggested this wasn’t something everyone knew, even among England teammates. The conversation kept circling the same theme—how a private habit becomes public in the most ordinary way, just because the clock won’t move forward.

It also brought back earlier revelations from Rooney’s home life. In 2023. his wife Coleen said Rooney once risked a fire in their home when he blew up a hairdryer trying to sleep. She said: “It’s a fan when I’m in the bed, but if not, it is a hairdryer. If I get up, if he’s still in bed I hear him get a hairdryer. Has he told you that it’s caught on fire before?. The hairdryer is on cool. but one time he was cold. so it turned it to hot – and it blew up!”.

For Rooney, the BBC set became another stage where the bedtime routine he insists on—hairdryer on, cold, blowing next to his head—was turned into something everyone could watch and listen to while lightning kept the teams waiting.

Wayne Rooney BBC England vs Mexico World Cup Joe Hart Kelly Cates Micah Richards hairdryer habit thunderstorm protocol Coleen Rooney