FC Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken faces an anxious wait before learning whether star midfielder Tobias Linderoth will be available to face Manchester United.

Linderoth stayed behind in the Danish capital when the squad flew into the north-west for the Old Trafford encounter to stay with wife Maria, who is due to give birth to the couple's first child.

Although the baby was expected last week there has still been no news, leaving Linderoth to make a final decision in the morning whether to make the trip or not.

"I am beginning to wonder whether she is pregnant at all," smiled Solbakken.

"It has dragged out a little bit but nothing has happened yet and Tobias will decide himself in the morning if he is going to join us or not.

"There is no pressure on him. If he comes, he will be here early enough to get some rest before the game, if he doesn't, we will bring someone else into the side."

Should the former Everton star not make the trip it would leave Copenhagen without any Premiership experience in their ranks given Jesper Gronkjaer has already been ruled out with a groin injury.

Fear

It is hardly the ideal scenario for Copenhagen to go into a game in which even their own supporters fear could end in a heavy defeat.

Even Solbakken hardly cut a confident figure as he assessed his side's chances of success, although he was able to draw on Copenhagen's unlikely comeback with over Ajax in Amsterdam which earned the Danish champions a place in the group stages of Europe's elite competition for the first time.

"Normally, a club like ours would beat Manchester United at Old Trafford once in every 15 visits at the most," he said.

"But getting a victory over them is a far easier task than going to Ajax knowing you have to beat them by two clear goals to qualify.

"Our aim tomorrow is to win but, if they play to their best and we don't, I accept we could be in trouble."

Solbakken's previous experience of English football was not the best, spending five unhappy months at Wimbledon almost a decade ago, where he found the Crazy Gang spirit not to his liking.

"It was not the highlight of my career that's for sure," said Solbakken, the 38-year-old former Norwegian World Cup colleague of United's reborn striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

"I could not really figure out what was expected of me and I didn't fit in, either as a player or a person."

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