Allardyce can’t believe the bucket-load of stick Rooney has had to endure over the last two or three years of what has been an otherwise illustrious career.

Or the punishment to his body Rooney has endured in the 16 years since making his debut for his boyhood club and starring in spectacular style for Manchester United.

Allardyce believes most players couldn’t have stood up to the verbal and physical battering which Rooney has shrugged off to maintain is undying love for the game.

And Big Sam is looking forward with relish to working with the former England hero who hammered in that awesome half-way line goal in his midweek hat-trick against West Ham.

Allardyce, not a stranger to controversy himself, is happy to salute Rooney for brushing himself down and picking himself up to defy the critics.

He said: “I think that as a man he appears to me to have handled all the amount of criticism he’s had over the last two or three years.

“Pretty manfully in fact with the way things have been thrown at him and the way he seems to carry on with his game and his desire to continue to play football for as long as he can.

“This club is special to him. This is his childhood club. And Wayne doesn’t stay down and he doesn’t hide. It’s not been going too well here but he always wants to receive the ball.

“And he will always accept the ball and use his experience to help the lads along the way who are struggling. That is a test of your character.

“I think Wayne with his experience in the dressing room is vital. He’s seen it all before. He’s done it all if, perhaps, not in a difficult position like this.

“Wayne’s legs are not as good as they used to be and they can’t be. He has played all those years and apart from being injured, he won’t have had three weeks off a year.

“It has been one hell of a career. To still be playing football after that amount of punishment to his body is remarkable. Players at that level are normally finished well before they are 30.

“You can see a lot of players in the past who have broken in at 16 or 17 and by their mid to late twenties, they can’t do it anymore.

“It’s because the punishment to the body is huge. We’re bound to expect him trying the best he possibly can but within the limitations of what happens when we get older is what it’s all about.

“It’s for me to keep Wayne delivering that kind of performance from the other night. It’s my job to be good enough as a manager to try and get the best out of him.”

Allardyce watched the demolition of the Hammers managed by Everton old boy David Moyes from the stand and was giving the man of the match accolade to keeper Jordan Pickford – until Rooney stole his limelight.

He added: “I knew Picky from Sunderland and he’s 22 going on 30. He was outstanding the other night. If Wayne had not scored a hat-trick, he would have been my man of the match.

“His decision making and the ease in which he made the saves look, with a penalty save on top of that, it was a flawless performance by him. But obviously Wayne topped that with his three goals.”