Rooney misses United training

Wayne Rooney was absent from the open 15-minute section of training on Tuesday ahead of Manchester United's Champions League game with Schalke.

Rooney had not suggested there was any problem when he tweeted on Tuesday morning that he was heading for training after dropping son Kai off at his nursery.

However, he was missing as United went through their paces at their Carrington training complex.

In itself, Rooney's failure to appear should not be viewed as an indication he will not be involved in the semi-final second-leg against Schalke.

The 25-year-old England striker also missed a similar session ahead of United's meeting with Chelsea in the quarter-finals and still scored in the Red Devils' first-leg victory.

In addition Sir Alex Ferguson has also suggested Rooney will not start on Wednesday night as the Scot intends to select top scorer Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen for a game in which his side will be defending a 2-0 first leg lead.

With a crucial Premier League encounter with Chelsea to come on Sunday Ferguson will be giving plenty of thought to the players he intends to choose.

Darren Fletcher, out for two months with a virus, was training and is available but Brazilian defender Fabio, who suffered a knock in Sunday's defeat at Arsenal, did not train and seems unlikely to be involved.

Denmark keeper Anders Lindegaard has recovered from the knee ligaments injury that has ruled him out for a couple of months should Ferguson wish to rest first choice keeper Edwin van der Sar.