Wayne Rooney's return to the Manchester United squad has been delayed by a further two months, manager sir Alex Ferguson confirmed.
Rooney has not played for United since the 1-1 draw against Swansea a couple of weeks ago, but was expected to return to training this week. However, there has been an unfortunate delay in the injury, meaning Rooney will miss the FA Cup third round clash with West Ham United as well as the huge English Premier League game against Liverpool next Sunday.
"Wayne's still injured, and it looks like going to be out another two weeks or so," Ferguson told reporters in his pre-match press conference.
"It's a surprise as he was meant to be back training now. So he'll be out for longer than we thought and I don't think he will be fit for the Liverpool match.
"The injury is nothing serious. He just got clipped behind his knee. Nothing shows in the scan but he's still feeling it. Hopefully in two weeks it'll be sorted but nonetheless it's a loss."
United do have some good news on the injury front, with Phil Jones passed fit for the West Ham tie, and Nani expected to return to training Friday.
"Nani is expected to start training today, and Phil Jones is available against West Ham," Ferguson added. "Everyone else is OK I think."
Ferguson expects a difficult outing at West Ham, saying the tie was a "particularly hard one."
"We've had some really difficult ties over last three or four years," he said. "You hope first of all you're going to be at home in the draw, then you want a draw you can get through.
"But this is a particularly hard one, they're in good form and they're at home. (West Ham manager) Sam (Allardyce) has done great job there getting them promoted first of all. It's not easy to bounce right back but they've done well and their form has been very good.
"They've had some excellent results. So it's going to be a tough game. I don't think we'll make too many changes. I think we'll more or less play a strong team and hopefully we'll get through.
