Man United: Rooney cleared for Champions League

LIVERPOOL (AFP) - Sir Alex Ferguson has signalled that Wayne Rooney will make his return to action in Wednesday's Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese capital.
The England forward has not played since suffering a metatarsal fracture on the opening day of the season and, although he returned to full training last week, Ferguson declined to risk him against his old club Everton on Saturday.
United came through the encounter without him, Nemanja Vidic's late header proving enough to secure all three points courtesy of the club's third straight 1-0 win.
Afterwards United's manager revealed that he was planning to involve Rooney in Lisbon.
"He will be fit for Wednesday," said the Scot. "We have taken medical advice and they said it was a little bit too early for Everton. And after only five days he is a bit short of fitness but he will be training through until Wednesday."
After a shaky start to the season, Ferguson has been relieved to see his squad start to grind out results in tight matches.
"We all know we have not got our strongest side out at the moment due to injuries, but there is a good togetherness in the squad and it was a strong team effort, which it has to be at the moment.
"We defended well. They had one chance at 1-0 but Edwin van der Sar made a terrific save, and Rio Ferdinand made a fantastic block from the rebound.
"When we get our forward players back from injury we will be all right."
Cristiano Ronaldo's return to the United line-up after a three-match suspension was marred by a yellow card for diving and Paul Scholes was also booked by referee Alan Wiley -- both decisions which infuriated Ferguson.
"The crowd got Scholes that yellow card, the referee's view was blocked but he heard the crowd and showed him a card.
"Carlos Queiroz has watched the video (of Ronaldo's tumble), and it was outside the box but he was definitely caught by the Everton player.
"To get a yellow card for that was ridiculous. The referee thought he might have to give a penalty kick, so he booked Ronaldo instead, it was a bad decision."
Ferguson, who admitted that French defender Mikael Silvestre could be facing a prolonged spell on the sidelines after being stretchered off with suspected knee ligament damage, paid tribute to Vidic's contribution at both ends of the pitch.
"We are delighted with the win because people will see a very improved Everton this season," he said. "Teams will find it very hard coming here.
"But we stood up to Yakubu and Andrew Johnson, who will be handful for anyone, and our defenders showed great determination.
"Nemanja Vidic is a marvellous defender but he can get a goal as well. It's a bit of a concern that we are not scoring as many goals as we want, but until we get everyone back we will play like this.
"We are determined, we have a good team ethic, we have got a good shape and we had good passing. We will work away and this is a very good result."
Everton are hoping to have first-choice keeper Tim Howard back for next Thursday's UEFA Cup first round first leg game with Metallist Kharkov of the Ukraine.
He missed Saturday's game with a serious finger injury paving the way for German Stefan Wessels to make his debut.
The 28-year-old did not have a serious save to make before Vidic's winner.
"We didn't deserve to lose three points. It's very hard to take," said Everton boss David Moyes.
"A lapse of concentration has cost us. I'm always disappointed when we concede from set pieces.
"We had a go at them but our keeper hasn't had too many saves to make. The performance was good enough and we are improving.
"If we play like that then we'll win more than we lose."
from:www.espnstar.com