ROONEY INJURY A DISASTER FOR LOUIS

WAYNE ROONEY will be out of action for at least six weeks with knee ligament damage, dealing a hammer blow to Manchester United’s season and manager Louis van Gaal’s hopes of keeping his job. The injury will also concern England boss Roy Hodgson ahead of Euro 2016. Van Gaal confirmed the United and England captain suffered the injury during Saturday’s defeat at Sunderland and may have aggravated it by playing the entire game. ‘That’s typical Wayne,’ said van Gaal. ‘He’s a guy who wants to go until the end. ‘If he’s feeling pain, he doesn’t want to go off and, certainly, when you are in a drawn match, he wants to win. ‘That’s a fantastic attitude but sometimes it’s bad for his body. ‘He has a knee problem and we have to wait and see how long that takes. You cannot say (he made it worse) because he didn’t know when it happened. That’s the difficulty.’ Rooney will miss tonight’s Europa League clash with FC Midtjylland in Denmark and the return leg at Old Trafford in a week’s time, as well as Monday’s trip to Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup and up to six Premier League games. It represents a huge setback to United’s faltering campaign, with van Gaal under mounting pressure to deliver Champions League football next season. Rooney (below) is his leader and top scorer with 14 goals, having scored seven in the last nine games. The Dutchman only has two recognised strikers in Anthony Martial and Will Keane but denied blundering last summer by allowing Javier Hernandez, Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao to leave without bringing in more reinforcements. ‘No, I don’t think that’s the case,’ he said. ‘l knew in advance that our captain Wayne Rooney should play a lot of matches because he has shown this every year. ‘Certainly, in 2016, he has scored and that’s why we had a good run of matches until Sunderland. ‘We have to cope with that problem because everyone, including the captain, can be injured.’ Rooney has also been ruled out of England’s friendlies against Germany and the Netherlands next month. Rooney was one of 13 players left behind on the casualty list when United landed in Denmark yesterday with an 18-man squad containing 10 players under the age of 23, including Scotland Under21 player Donald Love. ‘They are all contact injuries and that’s bad luck,’ said van Gaal. He has backed United fans who are protesting at having to pay more than £70 to see the game tonight. Around 800 are making the trip but have been forced to pay substantially more for a ticket than the £22 it cost Southampton fans when their team played here in a qualifier last August. Tickets for Midtjylland’s home games usually cost £15. Van Gaal said: ‘It shows you Manchester United is a big team but I have sympathy for the fans.’