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Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney could be out of action for longer than the initial prognosis of three weeks, manager Sir Alex Ferguson said on Friday.
Rooney, who signed a new five-year contract at Old Trafford last week after first shocking the club by saying he wanted to leave, is currently on holiday recovering from an ankle injury.
When asked at a press conference on Friday if three weeks was still the prognosis for his return, Ferguson said, "I think it may be longer." Rooney was injured in training last week following a challenge with team-mate Paul Scholes.
The 25-year-old has since been given permission to travel to Dubai to recuperate and celebrated his birthday there with wife Coleen last weekend while United were winning 2-1 at Stoke. Ferguson has no plans to rush Rooney back and he believes a longer than expected period of rest is the best cure for the England striker.
"There is no recovery, it is just rest," Ferguson said. "Before he went away we did his remedial in terms of what we could do at the time. Thereafter, rest we're quite happy with that. He is all set to get back, just that it will take longer than expected."
Rooney appeared to be on his way out of Old Trafford last week when he criticised the club's lack of ambition.
He was eventually persuaded to stay after being handed a massive wage increase, while the Glazer family, who own United, made personal assurances that there would be increased investment in new players.
Rooney's prolonged absence puts pressure on Bulgarian forward Dimitar Berbatov and young Mexican striker Javier Hernandez to lead United's attack until he returns to fitness. "We are all pleased with Javier," admitted Ferguson.
"Everyone's excited by him at the club. He's done really well. He's got the right desires and trains very well. He's very receptive to coaching and has a good pedigree. He's a young boy who has come from Mexico and a different culture. But he speaks the language which is important. We are not surprised as we identified a lot about him before we signed him. We did a lot of work on him. Therefore after seeing him in the pre-season and in training, we thought he would do well."
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