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FOOTBALLAFRICAN VIRUS FLOORS ROONEY
Wayne Rooney: Likely to miss start of season Wednesday August 6,2008 By Richard TannerWayne Rooney will miss the start of the season as Sir Alex Ferguson faces up to an illness and injury crisis that could dent Manchester United’s hopes of retaining the Premier League. Rooney is still badly affected by a mystery virus that he picked up on United’s trip to Nigeria. He has not trained since the squad returned from West Africa on July 28 and has been so weakened by his illness that Ferguson has ruled him out of the Community Shield match with Portsmouth on Sunday and the first game with Newcastle on August 17. England manager Fabio Capello will also be concerned, with Rooney almost certain to miss the friendly against Czech Republic on August 20 ahead of next month’s World Cup qualifying campaign. “I doubt we will get him fit for the start of the season,” said Ferguson. “It’s a virus he has picked up in Nigeria I believe and it’s not a nice one – it has affected a few of them. It’s such a bad virus, it has knocked him out and he hasn’t trained since we got back.”
Ferguson ruled out suggestions Rooney could have contracted malaria in the same way that Arsenal’s Kolo Toure has been struck down since visiting the Ivory Coast in the summer. United players were all given malaria tablets and had injections for yellow fever and hepatitis before their tour of South Africa and game against Portsmouth in Nigeria. Ferguson said: “He has not been to hospital. We have done all the investigations. We have the facilities here to do things now. We have our own laboratory here. All he had was malaria tablets and it was nothing to do with that. It isn’t malaria.”
Rooney’s absence leaves Carlos Tevez as Ferguson’s only fit first-choice striker, with Cristiano Ronaldo out until October with an ankle injury and Louis Saha having played no part in any of the pre-season games and with a move to Sunderland on the cards. But Ferguson has problems in other departments as well. Owen Hargreaves has not played a pre-season game yet after suffering a recurrence of the tendinitis that restricted his appearances last season, while Michael Carrick returned to training only yesterday after recovering from the same virus as Rooney. Park Ji-Sung is on the way back to fitness after a knee operation, Nani is suspended for two league games, Anderson is at the Olympics and Gary Neville has a calf strain. Ferguson, meanwhile, has reiterated that Real Madrid target Ronaldo is staying at United this season. “The matter is closed now – he’s a Manchester United player,” he said.
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