Fergie ready to unleash Rooney

Published: 20 Feb 2009 - 14:35:08

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Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney is ready for a starting berth following his recent injury lay-off. The Manchester United boss has been wary of throwing the striker back into action too soon after a seven-game spell on the sidelines. Rooney showed no ill-effects from his hamstring problem during a cameo appearance against Fulham on Wednesday, and even managed to score with his first touch in the 3-0 win. Ferguson is delighted to see the England international edging back to full fitness and will award him another much-needed run out against Blackburn on Saturday. "Wayne Rooney will play tomorrow," he said. "He has to start a game to see how far advanced he is." TemptedFerguson feels that his cautionary approach of easing Rooney back into the fold was the right thing to do, but admits the 23-year-old has been straining at the leash for over a week now. "We could have been tempted to use Wayne at Derby (in the FA Cup) but we felt the extra few days' training would help him," said Ferguson. "He had a little setback which wasn't terrible but it was enough to keep him off for a couple of days. "Then we had to him back into the real training to make sure he was 100 per cent fit. "Thankfully he came out of Wednesday with no reaction."