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Rooney suffers toe injury and is doubtful for Bayern clash

Wayne Rooney is set to miss Saturday's match against Newcastle © Getty Images

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Manchester United have been dealt a major blow with a toe injury to striker Wayne Rooney.

After a season full of disappointments, Tuesday's 1-1 draw against the reigning European champions was an uplifting experience for Moyes and his players, but Rooney suffered an injury to his toe that will keep him out of Saturday's trip to Newcastle United and possibly the return leg in Munich.

Moyes on Rooney injury: "He's got a terrible toe. Not only is it a problem for this game, it could be a problem for the Munich match." #mufc

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 4, 2014

Nemanja Vidic put United ahead in the second half and had it not been for a couple of missed chances, the Red Devils could have come away with a highly creditable win.

In his pre-match news conference on Friday Moyes, conscious of the fact that there have been many false dawns this season, was reluctant to praise his players too much for the performance as he knows there is much work to be done for United to make it through to the semi-finals.

"We don't want a pat on the back for just getting a good performance,'' Moyes said. "The job is to beat Bayern Munich. We want to beat them and knock them out.''

Rio Ferdinand and Vidic started on Tuesday, but they could be replaced by Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans this weekend, who have been out for one and two months respectively.

"We have got Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling back in training, that helps us,'' Moyes added.

Ryan Giggs looks set to miss the trip to the north-east because of a hamstring injury he suffered against Bayern, but left-back Alex Buttner has recovered well from the hamstring problem he sustained versus the Germans.

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