Wayne Rooney is second Man United player to contract African bug

Manchester United are reeling from the news that Wayne Rooney will miss the start of the season with a mystery virus.

Devastated boss Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he has been given a major headache with the striker struck down by an illness contracted on the pre-season trip to Nigeria, although he confirmed it is not malaria.

Ferguson is already without Cristiano Ronaldo, who will not be able to play again until the end of September after undergoing ankle surgery.

Fergie will also lose Nani, Anderson, Ji-Sung Park, Owen Hargreaves, Louis Saha, Michael Carrick and Gary Neville for the start of the campaign.

It leaves him in desperate need of a striker, but more bad news was heading his way with Barcelona poised to hijack his planned move for Spurs forward Dimitar Berbatov.

Ferguson admitted he is concerned about Rooney, and that the club now have their own laboratory which has been carrying out tests on the player.

The United chief said: "It's a virus he's picked up in Nigeria I believe, and it's not a nice one, you know. It's a bad virus, but not malaria. He's not trained. He's not back in yet - 12 days until the start of the season and he's not trained."

Michael Carrick is returning to training after being laid low and Fergie added: "It's such a bad virus that it's knocked them out, which has left us struggling to get a team together."

New Barca coach Pep Guardiola is ready to add to Ferguson's problems with a £24million move for Berbatov.

Spurs will listen if the Nou Camp giants come calling and will be prepared to hustle through a quick sale even if United match Barcelona's bid because they would prefer for him to leave the Premier League.

Ferguson has pursued Berbatov (left) this summer, but has baulked at the asking price of £30m for English clubs.

His problems leave only Carlos Tevez as an experienced striker.

AFRICA'S KILLER VIRUSES
MALARIA
TUBERCULOSIS
CHOLERA
DENGUE FEVER
DIPHTHERIA

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