A tale of two bosses as Rooney waits for the verdict

The 24-year-old has undergone a scan on his right ankle after limping out of United's 2-1 first leg defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.

Replays showed Rooney suffered the injury when landing awkwardly, causing immediate concern for both club manager Sir Alex Ferguson and England coach Fabio Capello.

The speculation emanating from Manchester yesterday suggested Rooney will be out for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of a month.

If that diagnosis is confirmed, Capello will be by far the happier of the two managers as it will mean his star player returning to action well in advance of the Three Lions' two final World Cup warm-up games against Mexico and Japan in May.

It would also mean no repeat of 2002 and 2006 when the build-up to the World Cup finals was disrupted by injury scares for David Beckham and Rooney respectively.

Nevertheless, Capello is still facing an anxious wait to learn exactly what the extent of the damage is to the ankle of a player whose goal tally in the qualifying campaign reached double figures.

The England manager said: "I will speak to him in the morning. I was not happy, but I am not happy whenever any England players get injured.

"It is too early to say how badly he is injured. We need to wait for a scan."

For Ferguson, however, the results of the scan are likely to bring bad news as champions United, who lead the Premier League by a point, prepare for a potentially season-defining couple of weeks.

The reigning champions host Chelsea this Saturday in a game that may well go a long way towards deciding whether the title remains in Manchester for a fourth season or returns to Stamford Bridge.

Then, on Wednesday, Bayern Munich travel to Old Trafford looking to protect their one-goal lead to earn a place in the last four of the Champions League.

United's testing schedule continues with back-to-back away games at Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City to underline why Ferguson is hoping for good news from the scan on his

34-goal talisman.

The more pessimistic among the Reds' support will point to how normal security procedures were relaxed when the in-form striker returned to Manchester in the early hours of Wednesday wearing a protective boot around his right foot.

Instead of going through passport control with the rest of his team-mates, Rooney stepped into a club-sponsored car immediately after disembarking from the plane. He was then driven away from the airport to hospital.

The absence of the striker for the next couple of weeks would, at least, give United the chance to prove they are not the one-man team the likes of former England striker Alan Shearer have suggested this season.

And one United player who is adamant last season's Champions League runners-up can cope without Rooney is Nemanja Vidic, the Serbian defender believing Dimitar Berbatov is ready to fill the lone frontman role.

He said: "We showed this season, we play as a team. It is not just about one man.

"Wayne Rooney has definitely had a great season. He is unbelievable, one of the best in the world. But sometimes big players are missing, and others need to be ready."

In Rooney's absence, club record signing Berbatov scored twice in last weekend's 4-0 rout of Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium and Vidic added: "Dimitar had a great game against Bolton on Saturday. He is a great footballer.

"He scored twice himself and can set up goals for other players as well. We have a good squad. We just need to believe in ourselves and believe in each other."

Another member of the United squad confident the champions can cope is Darren Fletcher, who points to not only Berbatov but also Ryan Giggs and Antonio Valencia as likely candidates to make light of Rooney's absence.

The Scottish midfielder said: "It would be a massive blow for us if Wayne doesn't play because he has had a fantastic season.

"He scored again for us (against Bayern) and he is quite obviously one of the best players in the world.

"But we have other good players. If Wayne isn't available, we will rally round.

"Berbatov, Valencia and Giggs came off the bench against Bayern so we still have a lot of quality."