Manchester United injury crisis ahead of Champions League

Posted on September 27, 2011 by SoccerPunter

Rooney was unavailable for the 1-1 draw with Stoke at the weekend while Hernandez limped off after starting the game, and neither player will be available on Tuesday night.

Asked about Rooney, Ferguson said: “He’s not playing tomorrow. It can be difficult to assess a hamstring injury. Obviously we hope we have him back quickly. He did a bit of jogging this morning but that’s all. It’s difficult to say.”

On Hernandez, he added: “His injury is straightforward – it’s a dead leg he got on Saturday. He should be ready for next Saturday Premier League match against Norwich.”

It is the second game in succession that Hernandez has suffered an injury but Ferguson dismissed the suggestion the Mexican required more protection. “Saturday was an accident, a complete accident,” he said.

Despite losing his first-choice strikers, Ferguson will once again be able to call upon Danny Welbeck, while Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen will also be pushing their claims, but Manchester United have injury problems throughout the team and there could be eight absentees against Basel.

 Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (groin) and Nemanja Vidic (calf) did not train, while Rafael (shoulder) is a long-term absentee, which means Antonio Valencia looks likely to again play at right back in a defence also featuring Rio Ferdinand, Phil Jones and Patrice Evra.

In midfield, Tom Cleverley (foot) and Darron Gibson (ankle) remain unavailable.

Basle won their opening fixture in Group C 2-1 against Romanian side Otelul Galati and Ferguson said United would respect their opponents.

He added: ”We played Basle a few years ago and they have always been the premier team in Switzerland. Switzerland have started to produce good young players – in fact they got to final of the European Under-21s this year.

”The national team has always been reasonably good and always seemed to represent themselves quite well and of course the Basle team have good experience of being in Europe quite a few times so we will respect that.”