The Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is set to miss two more weeks of football after the manager Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed that his return has been delayed. The 27-year-old has not played for United since the 1-1 draw with Swansea a few weeks ago. He had one of his poor performances for the club in this match.

Ferguson said that he expected the striker to bounce back after this poor performance in the match against Newcastle, but the knee problem means that he is unlikely to available for the next two weeks as well. This would effectively mean that Rooney will miss up to a month of football.

This adds to the pressure on the striker, who has already been criticised for the lack of contribution at the same level as Robin van Persie. Ferguson has had a lot of problems when it comes to his defenders suffering from injuries, but this is really the first time he has had to deal with a first-team regular in the striker department suffering from an injury. Still, Ferguson has many weapons at his disposal in the form of Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, and Robin van Persie to cope with the absence of Rooney. United managed to take the FA cup third-round into a replay courtesy of a last-minute goal from van Persie.

“Wayne Rooney is still injured. We’re surprised it’s longer than we thought. We expected him back training but he’s not. It’s nothing serious but if looks as if he’ll out for another two weeks or so. He won’t be fit for that I don’t think. It’s nothing serious, he just got clipped behind the knee, and we sent him for a scan but nothing really shows on the scan and he’s still feeling it. Hopefully two weeks will sort it but it’s a loss,” said Ferguson.