Wayne Rooney breaks Sir Bobby Charlton's Manchester United goalscoring record against Stoke

Brilliant free-kick brings Rooney's United total to 250 goals and saves them a point at Stoke

Wayne Rooney watches his free-kick head towards goal as he scores to salvage a 1-1 draw for Manchester United (Getty)

Wayne Rooney has broken Sir Bobby Charlton's Manchester United goalscoring record after finding the net in his side's 1-1 Premier League draw against Stoke on Saturday afternoon.

Rooney struck home an injury-time free-kick to salvage United a point, but more importantly it saw the England captain notch goal No 250 for the club that breaks club legend Sir Bobby's record.

After Marcus Rashford was fouled by Joe Allen to the left of the Stoke area, Rooney seized the ball and shaped to cross into the box. However, Rooney instead unleashed a fiercely whipper effort on goal that flew over Lee Grant in the Stoke goal in into the right-top corner.

The 31-year-old forward had came on as a second-half substitute in place of Juan Mata as United trailed 1-0, with the Spaniard scoring an own-goal to put Stoke ahead. before the break. With Jose Mourinho attempting to keep United's 16-match unbeaten run alive, he sent on Rooney and Rashford along with Jesse Lingard, and the move paid off - Lingard hitting the crossbar just minutes before Rooney's equaliser.

The goal brings Rooney's tally to 250, beating the record set by Charlton back in 1973.

Rooney's free-kick curls over the hand of Lee Grant and into the back of the net (Getty)

Rooney broke Charlton's 249-goal record (Getty)

Rooney celebrates scoring his club-record 250th goal for Manchester United (Getty)

Rooney signed for United in 2004 for a fee of £31m from Everton and will now surely go down as one of the club's greatest players.

The forward has struggled for form this season and has been subject to criticism from some fans, with talk of a summer transfer to China even cropping up earlier in the campaign.

Nevertheless, all that was forgotten as Rooney scored United's crucial equaliser to save their unbeaten run, which now stretches to 17 matches as the game ended 1-1.

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Rooney also broke Charlton's record of 49 goals for England in September 2015.