While his wife Coleen is 10,000 miles away in the Australian jungle tucking into insects and unmentionable animal body parts, Wayne Rooney will be keeping track of his wife’s progress from Plymouth – no doubt with more palatable snacks to hand.

The mother-of-four, 38, could be away from their sons for up to a month if she goes the distance in the contest.

But due to Wayne’s commitments as manager of Plymouth, he will remain in Devon in his rented flat, while his mother-in-law Colette looks after the boys.

It will not mark a huge change in routine for the youngsters, with Coleen revealing that Wayne only comes home ‘once or twice a week’ as it is.

The football star turned manager, 38, has been living something of a pseudo bachelor lifestyle while away from his family, enjoying boozy nights and takeaways since taking over at Championship side Argyle this summer.

Plymouth are currently in 18th position in the league with just four wins. When Wayne’s not in his flat planning for the next match or unwinding on his games console, he is known to go for a walk with friends and pop into one of his local drinking establishments.

One customer in a bar close to Wayne’s rented home in the city told MailOnline that ‘he comes in quite often for a few drinks’, adding: ‘He’s definitely put on some weight since he’s been down here, maybe he’s getting stuck into the pasties.’

Isolated from his roots in Merseyside and after making a slow start to the high-pressure job, Rooney has been regularly spotted enjoying nights out in the city’s bars and nightclubs including quiz nights and karaoke nights belting out his favourite Ed Sheeran hits including Shape of You.

And while he is served healthy lunches at work, he is said to spend many evenings alone eating fast food, drinking and playing video games, leaving Coleen ‘concerned’.

One source said recently: ‘Coleen’s told him no more takeaways, so she’s sorting out meal plans as well as making sure he’s busy when he’s not at work’.

After signing a three-year contract with the club, Rooney made the move 260 miles from his family home in Cheshire to a rented seaside flat in the Devon city.

When the move was first announced Wayne, Coleen and their kids Kai, 14, Klay. 10, Kit, eight, and Cass, five had been rumoured to be house hunting in the South West and particularly Salcombe, Britain’s most expensive seaside town nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea, which is just under an hour’s drive from his new job.

But he and Coleen, also 38, ultimately decided moving the family to Devon would be too disruptive to the kids’ education and eldest son Kai’s promising football career in the Man Utd academy.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday Coleen described the toll the 260-mile distance between them is taking, with Wayne living most of the week in Salcombe, Devon – a five-hour drive from the family’s mansion in Cheshire.

But she said that just before leaving for her stint in the jungle, they managed to enjoy a ‘nice family day’, having dinner together and attending their 11-year-old son Klay’s football tournament.

‘Wayne comes back once a week, sometimes twice, depending on the fixtures,’ Coleen explained.

‘Usually, he has Sunday off so he might come home. What’s good about the championship is that a lot of games are closer to me, closer to home, up in the North. So he’ll come home on a Saturday evening and spend Sunday with us, depending on what the boys have got on.

‘Time together is limited, more so than ever now because of the travelling and stuff.’

In a recent interview, Coleen said: ‘We thought long and hard about it (moving to Devon) but with the kids it didn’t work.

‘Kai’s now in year 10 and just starting GCSE prep and everything’s going well with football, and the other boys are all settled at school, so it didn’t seem fair on the children to pick them up and take them away, and start in a whole new place.’

Instead, Wayne cut short his BBC punditry role at the Euros in Germany and just days after returning home he moved alone to Devon to begin pre-season training on July 3.

Since then, Rooney is believed to be living in an upmarket apartment in the city’s luxurious Royal William Yard development.

Neighbours declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

While a loft-style waterfront flat there is luxurious and comfortable, it is a far cry from Rooney’s £20 million six-bedroom Cheshire mansion which boasts a snooker room, a home cinema, indoor swimming pool, an underground spa, wine cellar, a stable area with space for 14 horses and a football pitch.

Another flat in the development is currently listed for almost £5,000 per month.

The family-loving star appears to be struggling to adapt to life away from Coleen, his partner since secondary school, and their children.

Alone in the flat much of the time, has been spotted out drinking regularly in Plymouth including joining pub quiz nights at the Seco Lounge, a cafe-bar a few minutes walk from his flat, as well as several other nearby bars.

One customer told MailOnline this week: ‘I last saw him a few weeks back but I think he comes in quite often for a few drinks. I heard he’s come in for the quiz before too but I’m not sure how well he did.

‘Judging by the number of selfies posted on Facebook groups he’s going out to bars a lot’.

In August, Rooney was spotted belting out Ed Sheeran tunes on a late-night karaoke event at the Cider Press bar in the city’s Barbican area.

Video posted on social media shows Rooney urging the crowd to ‘make some f***ing noise, baby’.

Jarrod Styles, assistant manager, said: ‘He was definitely a better footballer than he is a singer.

‘He was an ideal customer, he was just chatting to people then he got up and sang Shape of You. He was working the crowd telling everybody to join in.’

The nearby Rakuda Bar also shared photos of two different visits from Rooney on Facebook, describing him as ‘Rakuda’s new regular’

Even before the latest pictures emerged, Wayne’s unhealthy lifestyle was causing concern back at home, during a visit with the kids early last month, Coleen is said to have been so shocked by her husband’s lifestyle she banned him from eating any more takeaways.

A source told Heat magazine: ‘Coleen got a bit of a shock when she saw Wayne recently. She’s worried he’s not taking enough care of himself now that he’s living on his own.

‘It was always going to be a big adjustment for him when he gave up playing football professionally. He was at the peak of his fitness during that time – Coleen made sure he ate healthily and he was always running about and playing footie with the boys. Now, she feels he’s not putting himself first, and worries that he’s struggling to cope without her looking after him.

‘She knows what Wayne can be like when he’s away – although the club has staff making the team healthy food for lunch, Wayne will be at home by himself in the evenings.

‘He’s not the best cook, so he’ll always take the easy option’.

Revealing that Coleen has already put plans in place to get her husband’s fitness back on track, the source added: ‘She’s decided to put him on a bit of health and fitness kick ahead of his 39th birthday next month, as she wants him to look and feel his best when they go away for a few days to celebrate.’

Representatives for Wayne and Coleen were contacted for comment.

Following a disastrous three-month spell managing Birmingham last season, Rooney endured a tough start to life in the South West where he failed to win any of Argyle’s first five league games.

Wins against Sunderland and Luton have boosted morale, however, and they are outside the relegation zone.

Rooney is also known to be an avid gamer, playing hours of Fifa online to relieve stress. Before taking over at Plymouth, Rooney spoke about passing the time gaming with a team of YouTubers named Girth N Turf,

He told former teammate Gary Neville: ‘I know the rapper Aitch and they have got this team. I’d nothing else to do so I joined the team, it’s hilarious.’

The photo of Rooney watching United lose 3-0 to Tottenham while clad in a black coat was shared by Sky Sports on X and several users were quick to urge him to take care of himself.

‘He looks really bad’, one account posted in response.

‘Hang in there, Wayne,’ another said, perhaps in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

‘Rooney looks older than his age,’ a third added. ‘He needs to take care of himself.’

A fourth account wrote ‘He looks too old’, accompanied by a crying emoji.

‘Is he suffocating, he’s all red?’ a fifth asked. ‘Asking out of concern.’

Rooney confessed in 2022 that he only had one suit that still fit him after being ribbed over his appearance by Jamie Carragher on Sky’s Monday Night Football.

Carragher noticed Rooney was wearing the same suit, shirt and tie combination from his Premier League Hall of Fame induction a fortnight before the show.

Rooney responded: ‘Do you know what? There’s a reason behind that.

‘Obviously, over the last year, I’ve put a little bit of weight on. So it’s actually the only suit what’ll fit me at the minute – I’ve got to get the most out of it.’

Rooney has previously opened up on his fight to avoid piling on the pounds during his trophy-laden playing career, writing in his 2012 book My Decade In The Premier League: ‘I’m like most blokes, I put on a few pounds after a holiday.

‘Even if I don’t train for a week, I put on two or three.’