Full of a cold, struggling with a dodgy knee, feeling the pace of the long hard slog.
But still the man who made the difference, the man who scored the goal that mattered, the man who allowed Sir Alex Ferguson to make another piece of history.
And while Fabio Capello cannot wrap Wayne Rooney up in cotton wool and transport him to Rustenburg now, the England boss would be forgiven for wishing he could.
For all that Martin O’Neill moaned and groaned about Phil Dowd’s fourth minute decision to leave Nemanja Vidic on the pitch, the one thing the Villa boss could not deny was that his team had no answer to Rooney’s unique brand of footballing genius.
After a week when the World Cup coaches lined up to speak in reverential terms of the spearhead and talisman of Capello’s England, it was only fitting that Rooney responded in the grand manner to settle the best Cup Final so far played under the new Wembley’s shimmering arch.
Summoned from the bench to replace the hamstrung Michael Owen - the hammer-blow that surely confirms England’s fourth-highest scorer of all time will not be on the flight to South Africa on June 2 - Rooney was somehow destined to make the most important contribution of all.
So it proved, as Antonio Valencia and Dimitar Berbatov combined, not for the first time, to expose Stephen Warnock’s international credentials.
Valencia’s cross asked the question, just as a series of recent centres have put the onus on Rooney’s forehead.
And just as he did against Portsmouth, AC Milan and West Ham, so he delivered, rising with grace and elegance, making contact with power and accuracy, steering an unstoppable header beyond the groping fingers of Brad Friedel and into the top corner, his 27th competitive goal in 35 appearances for United this season.
Filling the Cristiano Ronaldo void? Making it a redundant issue more like.
But when you have a special player, he can do special things. And let there be no doubt, Rooney is special.
United needed him too, needed that something extra to finally see off a Villa side who started like an express train before finally being derailed by the Scouser.
When Vidic, beaten all ends up by Gabby Agbonlahor after Emile Heskey hooked forward, dragged the speedster down inside the box, the spot-kick was a certainty, with Villa baying for a red card too.
Dowd controversially decided Agbonlahor was not heading for goal, choosing not even to bring out a yellow card, but James Milner’s dead-eyed dispatch from 12 yards confirmed his place in the watching Capello’s final 23.
For a while Villa were flying, although Owen was as sharp as a tack, only for the momentum to turn when Dimitar Berbativ caught Richard Dunne in possession on half-way.
Berbatov surged forward with Dunne’s desperate tackle only serving to tee up Owen, whose instant strike into the bottom rolled back the years.
Capello might, briefly, have wondered if he had been wrong to write Owen off, only for the striker’s body to make the Italian’s mind up five minutes before the end of a period United had begun to dominate.
Berbatov - having one of his better days - flicked forward and Owen had the half-yard on Dunne that is normally enough, only to pull up as the twang in his right leg ended his afternoon.
Enter, of course, Rooney, although it was Ji-Sung Park, after Valencia left Warnock on his back-side, who was denied by the upright on the interval.
But after the break, as Ashley Young and Agbonlahor flattered only to deceive, there was an inevitability.
Friedel saved superbly from Michael Carrick as Villa defended with increasing desperation, before Rooney broke the dam.
He could have had a second soon afterwards, another thumping header, again from Valencia, leaving the post quivering.
Villa staged their own late siege, Dunne joining Heskey and substitute John Carew up front, with the England man’s header from Stewart Downing’s excellent centre flicked on to the bar by Tomas Kuszczak.
Then Dunne, picked out by Downing’s subtle lofted ball, got the touch but not the direction, although Valencia, on the break, missed his chance to seal it.
It mattered not. For the first time in their history, United had retained a cup, Fergie’s 26th major trophy in his 24 years at Old Trafford. He is Roo-markable. Let us just hope he is the same in June and July.
