Europa League: Manchester United will face Ajax Rooney-less

After suffering a throat infection, Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney is set to miss the Europa League second-leg clash with Ajax.

Rooney was instrumental in the first leg of the clash with The Dutch giants setting up Javier Hernandez's goal to make it 2-0 on the night.

Hernandez and Rooney showed great link-up play when they played a one-two between each other, followed by Hernandez's cool finish off of a great move.

This goal was added to Ashley Young’s earlier goal, and an all-round good performance from the Red Devils has left them in a great position to progress to the next round.

Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Rooney will not be involved in Thursday night’s game, but is hopeful that he will be ready in time for a trip to Norwich on the weekend.

"Rooney's out for tomorrow. He has a bad throat," the United manager told reporters.
"There were traces of it in Amsterdam last Thursday and he's been in bed for a lot of the weekend."

Man United will hope that they won’t need to rely on the likes of Rooney for a second-leg win over Ajax, but with the dominance shown at the Amsterdam ArenA in the first leg—I’m sure the United faithful will be confident.

United are currently sitting two points behind city rivals Manchester City in the title race, and will be hopeful of a speedy recovery for Rooney to help them push on to close the gap.