Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernández will both miss Manchester United's Champions League game with Basel at Old Trafford.
Rooney is still recovering from the hamstring injury that sidelined him for Saturday's draw with Stoke and it is not clear when he will return. "It's difficult to assess with hamstrings but we hope we have him back quickly," Ferguson said. "He did a bit of jogging this morning but that's all."
Ferguson added that although Hernández's dead leg would keep him out on Tuesday, the Mexican should be back for the Premier League match against Norwich this weekend. The absence of both first-choice strikers means the manager will be choosing between Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and the fit-again Danny Welbeck in attack.
However, the problems do not stop there for United. The central defenders Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (groin) and Nemanja Vidic (calf) did not train on Monday morning. That is almost certain to mean Rio Ferdinand lining up alongside Phil Jones, with Antonio Valencia again pressed into service as an emergency right-back as Rafael is out with a long-term shoulder problem.
Fellow long-term casualties Tom Cleverley (foot) and Darron Gibson (ankle) have long since been ruled out.
United drew their opening match with Benfica in Lisbon a fortnight ago, while Basel are group leaders after defeating the Romanian side Otelul Galati in their first game.