Manchester United captain, Gary Neville, has today moved to play down talk that Wayne Rooney’s absence will mean defeat for us today against Chelsea.

“We don’t want injuries, particularly to our best players,” said Neville. “Wayne will be a miss for us because he has been in such great form. But in the past people have always stood up to the plate and contributed. We have had key players out for big matches before and still won them. We have gone into finals without two or three major players and come through it. Chelsea have players missing. They don’t have Michael Essien or Ashley Cole. All teams get injuries and suspensions on the run-in. You have to cope with them.”