Manchester United will assess Wayne Rooney’s hamstring injury ahead of the Champions League clash with Schalke, but there are doubts that the striker will be fit for Wednesday’s semi-final second leg encounter.
Better news for United comes with the confirmation from United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, that Darren Fletcher, who has not played for two months, will be involved at some point in the game.
Rooney scored in the 2-0 win in the first leg a week ago, but after missing training on Tuesday morning, could miss out at Old Trafford as United look to tie up a place in the final.
Sir Alex Ferguson had already suggested Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen will start against Schalke, and will give Rooney a fitness test on the day of the game.
“No, he didn’t train,” said the United manager.
“He had a tight hamstring so we left him today, but we’ll see what he’s like tomorrow.”
Ferguson added: “Darren Fletcher will play part of the game tomorrow night. He’s working hard and he’ll be involved.”
United are favourites to progress to Wembley after winning the first leg 2-0, but saw their Premier League hopes suffer a setback at the weekend as they lost to Arsenal and saw Chelsea close the gap at the top to three points.
However, Ferguson feels that his side are still favourites to lift the title for a record-breaking 19th time, but they still have plenty of work to do.
He continued: “We must be favourites, only because we’re three points ahead but that can evaporate quite quickly as we realised on Sunday.
“We have a big job to do yet. [We have] three games left and as I said last week the drama is not finished.”
