WHERE NO DON BEFORE

Of Aberdeen star Adam Rooney. His mission: famous celebrities like William Shatner...

ADAM ROONEY has laid down the gauntlet and challenged Star Trek legend William Shatner to prove who has the biggest balls once and for all.

The Aberdeen striker traded comedic blows on social media this week with the iconic star when they were snapped holding baubles for the Christmas tree.

Banter between the pair took place as they pledged their support to Cahonas Scotland – a charity which raises awareness of testicular and prostate cancer.

Rooney even joked he thought Shatner’s Twitter account was a parody before he clocked the actor’s huge amount of followers.

Now the Aberdeen hitman is determined to settle the size issue once and for all after one of the most surreal episodes in his life as 86-year-old Shatner trolled him and the Twitter spat went viral.

Rooney said: “Obviously there was a bit of crack on Twitter and I don’t think anyone was as surprised as me when I saw I had a tweet from William Shatner trolling me. But it’s all right, we’re mates now.

“It was a bit of crack and raised a lot of awareness for a serious problem for a lot of fellas, so it’s great that it got as much publicity as it has.

“It’s just a bit of a laugh between the two of us. I hope he sees it that way anyway.

“He started trolling me but to be honest I thought it was a parody account when I saw it at first. Then I clicked on the account and saw that Bill had two-and-a-half million followers.

“I though ‘Aw f***, I’ll have to get back at him here, I’m actually getting abuse!’ I wasn’t a Trekkie as a kid and I actually remember him more from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

“He was in an episode of that show which I used to follow when I was a kid but obviously everyone knows who he is, so Bill and I are mates now.

“We’ll leave it as it is for now but I’ll hopefully catch him one day at a game and we’ll have to settle it somewhere privately.

“It was a bit strange all right but a lot of the lads just found it funny that I held my own.

“I thought I would get a bit of stick

ANTHONY HAGGERTY

today so it’s great that it’s kind of gone viral and raised a lot of awareness for the campaign. They are buzzing off it so they will maybe hire me next year.”

Rooney revealed some of his own family have suffered from the condition and that he was more than proud to lend his support to the campaign to raise awareness.

But the attacker was more concerned he would fall foul of Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes’ club rules governing the use of social media and be hit in the pocket.

Rooney said: “I actually have some family who suffer from the issue so the more awareness raised the better. However, I don’t think I’ll be allowed to do it every day.

“I was worried about the timing. We’re only allowed 24 hours before and after a game on Twitter so I was thinking I’m not getting fined for it. That’s why I have to try to settle it otherwise more pictures are coming out.”

Comfortable with his timing on Twitter, Rooney rediscovered his goalscoring mojo too after he netted in the 3-0 rout of St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night.

The strike brought Rooney’s run of nine games without a goal as to an end as McInnes’ Dons recorded back-toback league wins after successive defeats to Rangers.

Rooney reckons the players have responded well after the intense speculation linking McInnes with the Rangers job before the manager chose to snub a switch to Ibrox to remain in the Granite City.

While Rooney enjoyed a “laugh” with Shatner on Twitter he is well aware social media can also be problematic.

Speaking about the manager’s link with Rangers, Rooney said: “I think everyone at the club just wanted it to end because every week someone was getting questioned on it when a lot of it was being driven by rumours and there was nothing in it.

“So you don’t want speculation about your club but you’ll always have it if you’re doing well as a team, whether it’s your manager, your players, Jonny Hayes last year, whoever.

“It’s just something you have to deal with in football. We’ve had a bit of a tough spell there over the last month, when we haven’t performed as we normally do.

“We had a run of eight straight wins and five straight defeats one season so you’ll always have spells throughout a campaign.

“We just have to make sure we stick together as a group, which we do, and have enough character in the team to make sure we bounce back, because you have to believe you can go on a good run.

“We have always done that since I have been at Aberdeen, put runs of games together. That’s two clean sheets, two wins and that’s more what we’re about.

“Over the years that’s what the fans have come to expect of us and although at times we haven’t been brilliant we always get the three points.

“We look solid at the back and we’re scoring goals.

“The Twitter thing with Bill was a bit of fun but you’ve also seen a lot of c**p on Twitter over the last few months as well.

“You don’t pay too much attention to it. As players you just get on with playing matches.

“The managerial stuff coincided with us not being in the best of form so people jump on something like that.

“We had tough games and possibly didn’t perform like we could have done but as a group in the dressing room we didn’t focus too much on that.

“You’d rather have speculation because you’re doing well than no one getting a mention, or getting a tweet off Bill!”

Obviously everyone knows who he is, so Bill and I are mates now ADAM ROONEY