VAN NISTELROOY MAY RETURN
Ruud van Nistelrooy is hoping to secure a place in the Manchester United starting line-up to face Newcastle United in the Barclays Premiership on Sunday.
The Holland international striker surprisingly found himself on the bench for both the Carling Cup and Barclays Premiership triumphs over Wigan Athletic, although his introduction did inspire a Red Devils comeback at the JJB Stadium on Monday.
If Van Nistelrooy does return, it could be at the expense of John O'Shea as Sir Alex Ferguson toys with the idea of dropping Wayne Rooney into a slightly more withdrawn role in midfield.
Quinton Fortune has returned to training after suffering only a minor knee injury in a reserve-team outing at Middlesbrough in midweek.
Carlos Queiroz believes UnitedÂ’s Barclays Premiership rivals are finally starting to recognise that Chelsea are not invincible after all.
A three-goal hammering at Middlesbrough last month was part of a run that brought Jose Mourinho's side just two wins from six games, while Barcelona proved too good for the Londoners in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Even the Blues' recent victories over relegation-threatened Portsmouth and West Bromwich Albion have been unconvincing.
So, while Queiroz is not predicting any great dramatic change in fortune during this seasonÂ’s title race, he does believe attitudes in the top flight are changing.
“We didn’t have to wait for Chelsea to play Barcelona to realise they are not invincible because we played them once this season already and beat them,” said the United assistant boss.
“But, watching Chelsea over the last four or five games, it seems other teams are beginning to think they can do something against them too.
“You have to give Chelsea a lot of credit because they already have 72 points this season, but teams are starting to find a way of creating problems for them and things are starting to change.”
Currently 15 points adrift of the Stamford Bridge outfit, United know even their game in hand will be rendered insignificant unless MourinhoÂ’s men meet more unexpected trouble.
By the standards of past seasons, even beating Liverpool to the runners-up spot would be seen as a failure by some.
But Queiroz feels fans must also accept the wider picture, which depicts a campaign blighted by injury, the latest of which saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ruled out with a broken cheekbone.
“When you think about the expectations of a great club like Manchester United, we are not happy,” he said.
“We want more, the fans want more and we think we can do more.
“But you have to look at the situation realistically. We started the season with 24 players, yet for six or seven games, we only had 12 or 13 to choose from.
“There is nothing wrong with the size of our squad but you cannot control injuries and we have lost important players like Paul Scholes, Gabriel Heinze, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville for long periods.
“This club exists to win championships and other trophies. We would like to have done better but when you take everything into consideration, if we can get a minimum 28 points from our remaining 11 games we will still have had a good season.”
Magpies boss Glenn Roeder believes Michael Owen cares just as much about Newcastle as he does about England.
The 26-year-old is currently fighting for fitness after suffering a fractured metatarsal in the 2-0 Barclays Premiership defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on December 31.
He is desperate to make the England squad for this summerÂ’s World Cup Finals and is confident of doing so, but the MagpiesÂ’ caretaker manager insists rumours that the striker's club commitments come second are nonsense.
“You hear rumblings around the place that he’s more interested in playing for England than Newcastle,” said Roeder.
“Well, that’s rubbish, absolute rubbish. Michael cannot wait to get back in the black and white shirt and do his stuff for us, which is scoring goals.
“Thereafter, of course he knows there’s the World Cup in the summer, and having been to one myself in France 98, it’s the most wonderful tournament to be involved in and he should rightly be excited about the World Cup.
“But he knows first things first, and that’s playing for Newcastle again.”
OwenÂ’s rehabilitation is continuing apace despite suggestions, denied by St JamesÂ’ Park, that he had suffered a setback this week.
However, Roeder once again played down claims the 26-year-old could be ready for the FA Cup quarter-final trip to Chelsea at the end of this month.
“First of all, he hasn’t suffered a setback,” he said. “I don’t know where that rumour came from.
“We are now in a different era from the bucket of water and cold sponge treatment of injuries.
“From the moment he got injured, we had a programme mapped out for him. In that programme, he has scans and X-rays along the way and Monday was one of those that has always been mapped out.
“We feel we know where Michael is at the moment in terms of when he will make a comeback - you can be that accurate nowadays - so it’s probably unlikely that he’ll make the Chelsea game.
“But nevertheless, I think he’s going to be fit to play plenty of games for Newcastle this season before he moves on to the World Cup.”
England midfielder Kieron Dyer is another man on the mend as he attempts to recover from his latest hamstring problem.
Dyer stepped up his training this week, and although he is unlikely to figure at Old Trafford, he could return for the home clash with Liverpool next Sunday.
Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Howard, Neville, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Brown, Vidic, Silvestre, Evra, Richardson, Ronaldo, Giggs, O'Shea, Fletcher, Park, Rooney, Van Nistelrooy, Saha, Rossi.
Newcastle United (from): Given, Harper, Ramage, Babayaro, Boumsong, Elliott, Parker, Emre, Solano, NÂ’Zogbia, Bowyer, Faye, Clark, Brittain, Pattison, OÂ’Brien, Shearer, Ameobi, Luque, Chopra.
