Jonny Evans and Park Ji-sung are set to return for Manchester United when the Premier League leaders tackle Bolton at Old Trafford.
United are still beset by injuries though, with skipper Nemanja Vidic remaining on the sidelines with a calf problem where he is joined by Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea and Rafael amongst others.
Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson will be restricted to the stands as he starts a five-match touchline ban after accepting his punishment by the Football Association on Thursday.
United are under pressure to gain a victory that would consolidate their position at the top of the table after successive league defeats at Chelsea and Liverpool.
And that might mean a more advanced role for Wayne Rooney, who has won plaudits over the past week for a couple of excellent displays in midfield.
"We only started playing Wayne deeper because of the injury situation before the game against Arsenal last Saturday," said Ferguson.
"We were forced into trying to organise a team that gave us a chance of going through. In that particular game it worked.
"But Bolton are a completely different team and I may change it."
Bolton have on-loan striker Daniel Sturridge available again for the match.
Sturridge, who has scored four goals in five games for Wanderers since joining from Chelsea in January, was ineligible for last weekend's FA Cup quarter-final victory at Birmingham and is expected to return to the side despite picking up a slight knock this week.
Defender Gretar Steinsson should have recovered from a bug in time for the game, but midfielder Mark Davies is set to miss out due to an ankle injury sustained at St Andrew's.
Jlloyd Samuel and Joey O'Brien have been playing for the reserves after lengthy spells on the sidelines with thigh and knee problems respectively, although both are still some way off being ready for first-team action yet.
Zat Knight (knee) has only just resumed light training, while Sean Davis (knee) and Sam Ricketts (Achilles) are long-term absentees.
Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Amos, Smalling, Brown, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Gibson, Scholes, Carrick, Obertan, Park, Bebe, Giggs, Valencia, Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez, Owen, King.
Bolton Wanderers (from): Jaaskelainen, Robinson, Cahill, Wheater, Muamba, Petrov, K Davies, Elmander, Klasnic, Taylor, Alonso, Rodrigo, Cohen, Holden, Steinsson, Blake, Lee, Bogdan, Sturridge.
United league form: LWWLL
Bolton league form: WLWDW
Key opponent: Kevin Davies - bruising centre-forward will capitalise on any defensive frailty
Prediction: United 2 Bolton 1 - although there are defensive problems, Rooney's return to form means United should have too much going forward
Agree with the prediction? Have your say.
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Manchester United v Bolton Wanderers: Preview
March 18, 2011
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After the great news that Wembley awaits for both the Champions League and FA Cup finals, we will go into this game on a high and sure to get the victory. Sir Alex Ferguson and Chicharito will lead us to the Treble.
Well much prefer Park to Giggs and Evans I don,t like but has to be better than Brown.
Bolton are a hard team and we need FERGIE to rethink about changing Wayne from his new role after he and Chico have showd how well it works.
Forget everything else, the biggest game for us is this SATURDAY. The rest falls into place as we go. We may win the cup games but the big one is still the EPL nail at least that and I for one will be happy!
Then time for a clearout in the Summer and slotting a few new faces in.
Any reason Tony V is missing from that squad list...???
If jonny boy is back and ready i'd expect Alex to start him and Smalling at the back with Pat and Wes either side.
Park will be useful too, adding a bit of work to the midfield - as for moving wayne back up front, i'd leave him where he's been with javier ahead of him - no need to change something that's been working so well... but as we all know Alex does as he pleases!
We all know what kind of a game that Bolton will play. Therefore we do need height at the back. Evra is a nailed on certainty to play at left back, so I am afraid that we will not be able to accommodate another 'small' defender. Sorry, Fabio, I would have liked to see you playing in the other full back position, but a seat on the bench is more likely.
Therefore, because of the injury situation, I visualise a back four of Brown, Smalling, Evans, and Evra, with Edwin of course between the sticks.
I will trust the Master to choose the correct midfield/attack formation, but I confess to being more than impressed with the Rooney and Hernandes roles, and would love to see those two guys playing with the same tactics as against Marsaille. The problem for SAF is what to do with Berba?
United 'til I die!
What is the point of haveing Bebe and Obertan in the squad. If you watch the reserve ganes they are out of their depth their.
Would be good to see Tuncliffe, Pogba and of course Morrison in the initial squad!
Berbatov needs games so Rooney should start on the bench for this one; more so as the latter will be involved in the upcoming international matches and the former won't. All our remaining games are huge and we need every player firing on all cylinders.
It's not looking good for us. I fear that Kelvin Davis guy. In the ubsense of Vidic he'll bully our our weakened defense like you've never seen before. I' particularly worried about the prospect of playing Evans at CB. It looks more likely that that will be the case, with probably Brown at RB. I would have stuck Carrick alongside Smalling. But then there'll be a hole in midfield 'cause of the ubsence of Fletcher. Guys, it's not looking good. But tests like this one is where players make themselves heroes. Man 3 - 1 Bolton.
Play Rooney in midfield and Berba and Chicarito up front.
Why is Nani not on the squad list?And Scholes is banned! So with all the injuries i would like to see....
............................Van Der Sar.......................
Brown..........Smalling..........Evans..........Evra
Valencia.......Carrick..........Gibson..........Nani
....................Rooney.......Hernandez...............
Subs: Kuszackz, Fabio, Giggs, Park, Obertan, Berbatov, Owen
This is a MASSIVE GAME for us, and a MUST WIN. With all the injuries this will be a very difficult game to win, so the boys need the OT crowd more than ever tomorrow.I couldn't care less about the performance tomorrow as long as we win.I will be buzzing with ANY WIN.
PARK,CARICK and Gibson to start in MF.
Rooney, Chico and Nani upfront.
Sadly with the only defenders we can pick we are in trouble as Bolton always use the ariel route and apart from Smalling the rest are useless in the air. On Tuesday I cannot remember us winning the ball in the air from any corner against us and Bolton are better at it than Marseille.
This could be where the wheels come off.
Bolton tomorrow? God, that was a long hangover - and I haven't got my Wembley ticket yet - by the way, what was the score against City?
Yesterday Fergie proved once again that United is just his money cow,whilst his first love is Horses.With such a big game gainst Bolton today you would expect our manager to with the players,but no he is at the races with his horses.It is obvious Fergie no longer gives are thinks 100% United and its time for him to go.Do you think Wenger was at the races?
Fergiie should be setting an example from what I have heard several players were there too.
we really need to make a good start to this one, crush any hope bolton have of getting a result straight away. we all know how they play so its crucial to stop them throwing high balls into the box, this game will be won at the back, we have to much firepower going forward for them to handle.comon united 3 more points!!!!!!!
JAVIER HERNANDEZ reckons Manchester United are the favourites to dump Chelsea out of the Champions League and reach the last four
One cannot but be extremely sceptical about the strength of our defence against a team like Bolton, when we have J.Evans back in the squad and our two established central defenders both absent. That we still have not found a decent replacement for Evra, Vidic and Rio, to at least give these guys some badly needed respite, is a mystery to me. How on Earth does SAF argue that there is nothing of value out there on the transfer market when everybody else seems to have solid defenders in their teams? As for this year's goals let us not lose sight of our shortcomings. Champions League is truly well beyond our capabilities and as far as the EPL goes i am yet to be convinced that we can go right through to the last fixture without dropping too many points. I think it will be very difficult to succeed in denying Wenger's men's their consolation prize for the season. Our only realistic hope i think is beating M.City in the FA Cup semi and going on to win the cup. No genuine United supporter wouldn't want more than one piece of silverware this season but let us not kid ourselves. Under the circumstances, and given the poor level of performances we have had in most of this season's EPL and FA Cup matches, even one piece of silverware would do very nicely. Thank you very much. In the meantime summer is rapidly approaching and i hope Alex and the American owners come to their senses about the need to strengthen this squad. And that does not mean extending the contracts of our yesteryear's legends....
Charliebest
Went into semi-retirement this week and was looking forward to watching footy on a Saturday morning live. Well. After that first half of dire unadulerated rubbish and the brain dead halftime subs... guess what I went and watched the kids play in the park. My doctor had warned me that watching Man.U. could be hazardous to my health. As long as morons and idiots continue to pay to watch that garbage, nothing will change.