The injury to Wayne Rooney is predicted as a massive below as Utd take on Chelsea at Old Trafford – but will Utd actually miss their star asset?

Anybody who can watch beyond an hour of Sky Sports News on any given day has much more willpower than me.

As soon as you get to the 61st consecutive minute it feels like Groundhog Day, especially when the news flow is as slow as Michael Schumacher (who’d have thought we could ever use that gag?)

Wayne Rooney Injury – Utd perform better?

On Wednesday the lead bulletins were full of the news on Wayne Rooney’s injury, picked up in Munich the previous night.

You can prove anything with statistics apparently and Sky Sports News actually tried to prove that United perform better without the crocked England striker. They did this by showing United’s record in games WITH Rooney in one column and WITHOUT Rooney in the other.

Of the ten games that the United star has missed United have remained unbeaten and have a much higher win percentage. Suggesting we should be backing Sir Alex Ferguson’s men to overcome Chelsea without him on Saturday afternoon!

But wait – surely there is a reason hiding behind this statistical anomaly that ‘United don’t need Rooney’. Of course there is, and it comes from the realisation that he has only been rested for games that Fergie expected to win regardless.

In the league this season he has missed out on both games against Bolton and the away match at Wolves. United took all 9 of the available points from those assignments.

The visit of title rivals Chelsea is a completely different level and one that a fit Rooney would never have missed, even if his team are in the middle of a two-legged Champions League Quarter Final.

The bookmakers feel that Rooney’s absence has handicapped United sufficiently enough to make this a very, very close game.

A home win is priced at 6/4, a draw at 11/5 and a Chelsea win at 9/5 with Bluesq