Man Utd's Wayne Rooney to miss three weeks with injury

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will be out of action for up to three weeks because of an ankle injury.

The 24-year-old has endured a poor start to the season and was substituted in the second half of Sunday's 2-2 draw with Bolton after getting injured.

As well as not making United's trip to Valencia, Rooney will miss Saturday's league game at Sunderland and England's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro.

Midfielder Paul Scholes is unavailable for 10 days with a calf problem.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson revealed the latest prognosis on Rooney ahead of their Champions League Group C match against a Valencia side currently top of La Liga.

The striker's absence against Montenegro on 12 October will be a blow to England boss Fabio Capello, considering the injuries to Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott, Jermain Defoe and Bobby Zamora.

However, it is further bad news for Rooney whose private life has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks and whose form has wobbled in the opening period of the Premier league campaign.

The former Everton forward has only scored once this season - from the penalty spot - compared with three in a week for Michael Owen and seven so far this season for top scorer Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov.

Ferguson even admitted last week that the player was feeling the strain of being in the media spotlight after allegations about his private life.

Former England boss Kevin Keegan, working as a TV pundit for Sunday's match at the Reebok, said after the draw: "His performance at Bolton tells me his confidence is shot."

Rooney will join United team-mate Ryan Giggs on the sidelines with the Welshman ruled out for a fortnight after injuring a hamstring at the weekend.

The Old Trafford club opened their European campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw against Rangers and on Wednesday face the Spanish club who began their Champions League quest with a 4-0 defeat of Turkish team Bursaspor.

From BBC Website

Rooney needs a goal

Wayne Rooney backed to end goal drought by Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson

A mere 144 days ago, Wayne Rooney was about to record his 19th goal in 14 games for Manchester United, sustaining a remarkable run of form which appeared destined to flow like a torrent through to the World Cup final, enabling Sir Alex Ferguson’s team to sweep all before them to a Premier League and Champions League double on the way.

Then came the Sliding Doors moment, the split-second that changed everything and hauled Rooney back from the brink of immortality. Had he allowed the covering Ryan Giggs to check the run of Mario Gomez deep into stoppage time against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena, Rooney would not have mistimed his challenge on the German forward and he would have escaped the damage to his right ankle sustained after his attempted intervention.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet Rooney made the tackle, rolled his ankle, tweaked the tendons and he has not scored, or resembled his true self on a football pitch, since.

Rather than when will he stop scoring, the question now revolves around when Rooney will emerge from what has developed into the longest goalless run of his career.

As he prepares to face Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, revised Opta figures show that Rooney’s current goal drought stands at 1,081 minutes — 79 minutes longer than his barren run during the 2005-06 campaign. Whichever way the figures are spun, they make grim reading for Rooney, United, England — 13 games, 1,081 minutes, 18 hours and one minute. Nothing since March 30.

Famously protective of his players, Ferguson will never hang one of his own out to dry by condemning their failings, but while the United manager insists that Rooney will come good once again, he concedes that the 24 year-old is as frustrated as any forward by his lengthening fruitless streak.

Ferguson said: “I say it time and time again; strikers live by their goals. When they are not scoring, they think it is never going to come. Then, when they [goals] come, they think they are never going to finish. That is normal with any forward.

“They are quite straightforward people and Wayne is no different from any other kind of striker. They want to score and, when they are not scoring, they think it is never going to happen.

“But Wayne is one of the best strikers in the world. He is still young, still progressing and still learning.”

Wayne Rooney goals - Alex Ferguson's thoughts on Rooney

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson claims the weight of expectation on Wayne Rooney was to blame for his poor World Cup.

Rooney failed to score in four matches and looked a shadow of the player who shone for United last season.

"There was such expectation on him, talk he was going to be the player of the tournament," said Ferguson. "That was the prelude to the whole thing. You wait, in four years' time you'll see a different player."

Ferguson admitted he had been concerned by the hyperbole surrounding his striker at the start of the tournament.

"Rooney was going to be the star, he was going to outshine them all - Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo. So that level of expectation comes into it," he added. "And he's not got great experience of playing in the World Cup really."

The Scot revealed he was "baffled" by England's poor form in South Africa. Fabio Capello's team finished second in their group, behind the United States, and were then hammered 4-1 by Germany in the second round.

"That is going to be one of the imponderables - what has really happened and why are they [England] not getting better form," stated Ferguson.

"I watched their games and was baffled by what I saw. Expectation was a big thing. They qualified from a group which you'd have to say was a million to one they wouldn't qualify from. So it was an easy passage into the finals.

England's World Cup dream is over

"Maybe it would have been better if England had been in a tougher [qualifying] group. They'd have earned the right to be one of the favourites and it would have helped that they'd played good teams before they got there."

Ferguson said he had been particularly impressed with Germany and argued that their winning mentality and the Bundesliga's winter break had helped them through to the semi-finals.

"The history they've got [in Germany] is quite incredible," said Ferguson. "That organised mentality they have, the belief in themselves, it carries them a long way.

"The German mentality is 'we are always in the semi-finals'.

"Plus the fact they get a month's rest in January - it must help. All the England team are playing [in the Premier League] so they're all affected [by the lack of a winter break]."

However, Ferguson is tipping the Netherlands - who take on Uruguay in Tuesday's first semi-final - to win the World Cup.

He added: "I don't think they have played anywhere near their best form."

(Feed from BBC.co.uk)