Manchester United without Wayne Rooney up to two months

Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney could be out for between six weeks and two months after suffering a hairline fracture in his foot on Sunday. Rooney is now expected to miss the early part of United’s Premier League and Champions League seasons and some important international games for England. He will miss England's friendly with Germany later this month, and will probably miss the home Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel on September 8 and Russia on September 12. SBG Global has Manchester United +150 odds to win the English Premier League 2007-2008.

Carlos Tevez will make his Manchester United debut at Portsmouth on Wednesday in place of Rooney. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said that Tevez will get right into action. "I think Carlos will go straight into the team on Wednesday," Ferguson said. "I would have preferred to have left it until Manchester City next Sunday to give him another few days rest and training. But he has trained very hard on Saturday and Sunday so he will just do light training now to get him ready for Wednesday.

There was a bit of a delay in getting Tevez but United agreed to a two-year loan deal with the player and the company that owns Tevez’s rights. "There was competition for him but I think Carlos wanted to come here and that settled it," Ferguson said.

"The most important thing is he has proved himself in the English game…That single contribution impressed me greatly. I watched most of the run-in and to win seven games out of nine was championship form for West Ham and most of that was down to Carlos.”

Tevez is also relieved the signing is over. "I never thought I would stop playing football. Its different sides of the coin. I suffered the bad part during the end of the transfer,” he said.

"It was difficult for me to leave West Ham and it hurt to leave. But the lure of Manchester United was too much."

Tevez also knows that he will be counted on to fill in for Rooney. "I have never felt pressure when I play football. I always go out on the pitch with the intention of enjoying myself.

"Losing Wayne is a big blow because obviously he is a great player. But at a big club like Manchester United you have lots of individuals who can hopefully slot in and do that job."