Louis feels Wayne’s pain
WAYNE ROONEY has dealt a serious blow to Louis van Gaal’s hopes of surviving as Manchester United manager.
Rooney will be out until the beginning of April with a knee injury that will also raise concerns in the England camp ahead of Euro 2016.
United sources confirmed that Rooney will miss at least six weeks after damaging his knee in the defeat at Sunderland on Saturday. And the United captain may well have aggravated the injury by playing on at the Stadium of Light despite being in pain.
Rooney will miss at least eight club games – and that total could increase if United make progress in the Europa League and FA Cup – plus England’s friendlies against Germany and Holland at the end of March.
The loss of his 14- goal leading scorer and skipper is a huge blow for Van Gaal as he fights to save his job, while placing huge pressure on youngsters like Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Memphis Depay.
It is widely believed Van Gaal needs a top- four fi nish or to qualify for the Champions League via the back door route of winning the Europa League.
As he arrived here to start that trail against FC Midtjylland tonight, Van Gaal said: “It’s diffi cult to say how long Wayne will be out but he was injured in the game against Sunderland. He has a knee problem and we have to wait and see how long that takes.
“The fact he played on against Sunderland is typical Wayne. He’s a guy who wants to go until the end and if he’s feeling a 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 also bad for his body. You cannot say he made it worse because he didn’t know when it happened. That’s the diffi culty.
“It’s a blow because in 2016 he has scored goals and that’s why we had a good run of matches until Sunderland . But we have to cope with that because everyone can be injured, including the captain .”
Van Gaal defended his decision not to buy a striker in the last two transfer windows, despite selling Robin van Persie and Javier Hernandez last summer.
The Dutchman argued that he can play Martial – who has hit 10 goals – as his centre- forward and also wanted to leave room for youngsters like Lingard, who has established a regular place in the team in recent weeks, and Will Keane, who has been recalled from a loan spell with Preston and promoted to the first- team squad. Van Gaal confi rmed he also has the option of recalling James Wilson from his loan spell at Brighton and said that Rooney’s absence could open the door again for Depay – who lost his place to Lingard. He said: “I don’t think it’s the case that we should have bought.
“We have Martial, another striker. He has played several matches in this role and wants to play in this role. I knew in advance that Rooney should play a lot of matches because he showed this every year.
“I brought Keane back and he does very well in the second team. That is at a lower level, but sometimes you have to show it at a higher level and now he has the chance.
“Lingard is a second- year pro and now he is playing and that’s because our policy is that we didn’t want a big squad because otherwise you can’t try youngsters in your team. Remember, normally you don’t have so many injuries in your team. When you analyse the injuries it’s ridiculous. They are all contact injuries and that’s bad luck.
“Sometimes you have to back up the team with youngsters. This season we have had to do it every week .”
Rooney is the most notable amongst a long list of absentees for tonight’s game against the Danes. Marouane Fellaini, Matteo Darmian and Cameron Borthwick- Jackson are also out as are longer- term casualties Phil Jones, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo and Guillermo Varela.
On top of all that, Adnan Januzaj is cup- tied after playing in the competition during his loan spell with Borussia Dortmund.
Back in 1992, Van Gaal announced his arrival on the managerial scene by winning the UEFA Cup with Ajax – but 24 years on his chances of repeating that triumph in the competition’s new guise are looking bleaker by the day.
‘ Having so many injuries is ridiculous’