CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEWS: Valencia V Manchester Utd: WAYNE ROONEY'S difficult start to the season has taken another significant turn for the worse after tests on his damaged ankle showed he will not only miss Manchester United's Champions League tie here in Valencia tonight, but may be out for three weeks, ruling him out of England's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro.
The ligament damage could mean he misses United’s next three games as well as England’s game at Wembley on October 12th.
Another enforced absence for Rooney, troubled by persistent ankle issues for the last six months, also has ramifications for United, even if the reigning Footballer of the Year has had a disappointing start to the season.
“You don’t want to lose your best players,” his manager, Alex Ferguson, conceded. “I think Wayne will be two to three weeks maybe. In fairness he’s a strong lad and he’s done quite well recovering from injures in the past.”
It is, however, becoming a theme, and Ferguson did not take kindly to being asked what the X-ray had shown.
“It’s an ankle injury,” he said. “Do you want me to describe every ligament? Christ.”
The loss from United’s perspective is exacerbated because a clutch of other injury problems are affecting some of their more creative players, with Paul Scholes joining the list of absentees in Spain because of a calf strain.
“It was a big decision to leave Scholes behind,” Ferguson said. “With [Ryan] Giggs and Wayne, there was absolutely no choice. But the problem with small injuries, such as Scholes’s, is that, if he travels, plays and spends time on the plane, stiffness sets in and it doesn’t get any better. Sometimes you are tempted but it is never wise.”
The injuries have forced Ferguson to change his team for a match that goes ahead despite the backdrop of a national strike, with Spaniards protesting at drastic cuts in public spending by the president, Jose Luis Zapatero.
Ferguson is more concerned about the elements of his own workforce that are not fully functioning and the manager has another dilemma when it comes to Rio Ferdinand.
The centre half has missed 61 of the last 103 matches for United, going back to December 2008, and the concerns over his body are such he can no longer be regarded as an automatic fixture in the side, even though Jonny Evans has struggled alongside Nemanja Vidic at times this season.
Ferguson admitted he was not certain whether to pick Ferdinand and, with Gary Neville staying in Manchester because of a virus and Michael Carrick lacking match fitness after an Achilles problem, United’s starting XI could include not one English player, something that has happened only once before, against Manchester City in May last year.
After being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Rangers in their opening match of Group C, a trip to the Mestalla represents a difficult assignment and Ferguson’s wariness of the Spaniards can be gauged by the fact that, when he flew out to watch their 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid last week, rather than watch his own team in the League Cup at Scunthorpe, it was only the third occasion in nearly 24 years as manager he has missed a United match.
United, with only one win in 18 visits to Spanish opponents, have conceded at least two goals in four of their first six Premier League games. The danger cannot be underestimated against opponents who have won four of their first five La Liga games, even after the departure of their two most important players, David Silva and David Villa, in the summer.
“Valencia’s home record over the years has been very good,” Ferguson said. “We respect that; we’d be foolish not to.”
Tonight, kick-off - 7.45pm
Estadi de Mestalla
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