Rooney crocked playing head tennis

The 'freak accident' means the striker, who netted eight goals in his last seven games for Manchester United, will be out for four weeks.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: "It was an absolute freak accident. He was playing a game of head tennis and he caught his foot on the stanchion that holds up the net.

"It's a sickening blow, but we hope he'll be back in four weeks. He's been in red-hot form recently, but that's football. He'll miss our games against Blackburn and Bolton and it's obviously a big loss for England, too."

Ferguson believes Rooney would have taken advantage of any slip-ups by the teams in pole position to qualify from England's Euro 2008 group, Russia and Croatia.

But he is sidelined for the clash with Croatia on 21 November and Ferguson said: "I think Rooney was the man who could take England to the championships."

Ferguson wants Louis Saha to fill Rooney's boots against Blackburn today, while the continuing absence of Paul Scholes is causing the manager little concern.

Anderson, 19, has convinced Ferguson he will be the eventual successor to Scholes, who is out for three months after knee surgery.

"The idea was that Anderson would replace Scholes and Nani would replace Ryan Giggs in the long term," said Ferguson. "We can tell our judgment has been good with these two."