Manchester United vs Fulham

MANCHESTER UNITED LindegaardRafael, Jones, Vidic, Evra Valencia, Carrick, Cleverley, Nani Rooney Van Persie

FULHAM SchwarzerRiether, Hughes, Hangeland, Richardson Duff, Karagounis, Sidwell, Kacaniklic Ruiz Berbatov

Preview

Sir Alex Ferguson is still without midfielder Darren Fletcher (bowel surgery), while Jonny Evans (hamstring) and Ashley Young (knee) will not be involved.

In defence, Rio Ferdinand could feature, although Sir Alex may take the opportunity to rest one of his regular central defenders with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling returning to fitness.

The hosts may also look to rest goalkeeper David De Gea after an extended run of league games for the Spanaird, while he also has the options of using Danny Welbeck, Chicharito and Shinji Kagawa in attacking roles.

The visitors, meanwhile, will be without Simon Davies (neck) and Kerim Frei (groin) while Mahamadou Diarra is not expected to be fit for another week.

Martin Jol can, however, boast numerous attacking options as winger Ashkan Dejagah and strikers Mladen Petric and Hugo Rodallega are also in contention.

Kieran Richardson is likely to continue at left-back, although Jol can alternatively choose to restore the out-of-favour John Arne Riise to the starting line-up.