Rooney's son was born on November 2 -- is nothing compared to the exhausting burden of dragging ten under-performing team-mates through 90 testing minutes against Brazil in the desert heat of Qatar.
Now that really is going to speed up the aging process. Especially when Brazil are in one of those moods when they want to toy with their opponents, threatening to move up through the gears at any moment.
To their credit an injury-ravaged England side, captained by Rooney for the first time, was breached only once when Nilmar headed past 'keeper Ben Foster in the 47th minute. But that was one of a only a few positives on a night that left England coach Fabio Capello acutely aware that his side's hopes at next summer's World Cup Finals in South Africa hinge on the fitness of a worryingly small group of players.
Capello was without almost all those key individuals this weekend after frustrating run of injuries decimated his squad. In fact, only Rooney and Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry could be regarded as regular starters when the Italian named his team for the meeting with FIFA's number one ranked side.
Captain John Terry pulled out on the eve of the game after injuring an ankle in training, while Chelsea teammate Frank Lampard was crocked in similar circumstances 24 hours earlier. David James, Steven Gerrard, Emile Heskey, Aaron Lennon, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Glen Johnson were also missing.
And that's even before you start counting the likely contenders for South Africa who are still battling for full fitness after long lay-offs including Arsenal's Theo Walcott, Chelsea's Joe Cole and Aston Villa's Stewart Downing.
So the Italian was forced to dig deeper into his squad and unfortunately for Capello, he failed to unearth any gems. Fielding players drawn largely from clubs outside the top four -- United's Rooney, Wes Brown and Foster were the exceptions -- England looked intimated and overawed to be facing Brazil.
And that's not a good look for a team that is expected to swagger into South Africa with genuine ambitions of lifting the trophy.
Capello knew the players would have limitations, but the surely not this many. A night spent chasing the shadows of Brazil's yellow shirts left England red-faced, and that was as much to do with embarrassment as it was hard work.
Rooney, of course, stood out as he tends to do for club and country these days, and he was joined by Aston Villa's James Milner and West Ham's Matthew Upson as the few England players to emerge with their reputations enhanced. And at a time when places in the 23-man squad are up for grabs -- England have just one more friendly scheduled before Capello names his party next May -- the coach could reasonably have expected more players to step up their game.
Instead the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Jenas and Darren Bent all managed to do their personal cause more harm than good and there will have been more than one injured player back home who watched events unfold with a degree of relief from the comfort of their living room sofa.
It's hard to know what Capello can do about the situation over the next nine months apart from keep everything crossed and hope his best players don't suffer further injuries or reach the end of the campaign shattered after the domestic season.
He can certainly draw satisfaction that the efforts to instill basic organization and discipline in the side largely survived the overhaul in personnel. Less pleasing, though, was the sight of experienced players apparently forgetting the basic schoolboy principle of not conceding possession cheaply.
"We did some things wrong, but it was a test to come up against one of the best teams in the world and some of the best players," Upson told the Guardian newspaper. "The fact that we were missing a lot of players gave others the opportunity to put a case forward for going to South Africa, but also to look at the game plan. We had the right game plan and I believe we can beat Brazil, I really do, and we need to go to the World Cup with that kind of positive attitude."
That's the kind of response that will go down well with Capello. But reflecting positively on defeat is one thing, remedying those errors is quite another.
International football will now take a distant second place behind Premier League matters for the next few months and those handful of flaky performances in Doha will be quickly forgotten if the players' club form quickly returns.
Capello won't be able to switch off though.
And the one thing he will wish above all else over the next nine months is that Rooney's exertions for United haven't left him worn out by next summer.
Ian Winrow is a London-based football journalist and columnist for GlobalSoccerCenter.com.
