Wayne Rooney suffered a groin injury while on England duty

Wayne Rooney has been a surprise exclusion from Manchester United's recent matches in the past three days. Despite manager Sir Alex Ferguson implying on Friday that he had mostly a fully fit squad, the reality is that Wayne Rooney has been nursing a groin injury sustained on England duty during the recent international break. The 27-year-old featured and scored in World cup qualifiers against both San Marino and Montenegro. Against the latter is when he apparently suffered the injury and it's also the reason why he didn't feature against Sunderland on Saturday nor against Chelsea earlier today. Here is what Ferguson had to say about his star attacker:

"He got a groin injury playing for England. He wasn't 100% and there is no point risking players with groin injuries. It could exacerbate itself and you could be out for weeks. Hopefully he will be ready for next Monday's game."

- Ferguson | Source: Sky Sports

Monday's match, of course, is the derby with Manchester City. During the reverse fixture at the Etihad in December, Rooney bagged in a brace in United's dramatic 3-2 defeat of last season's champions. Even if the Englishman misses that clash, Ferguson will still have a plethora of quality attacking options for the tie at Old Trafford.

Jonny Evans also missed the Chelsea game because of a knock. The Northern Ireland international picked up a hamstring strain against Sunderland but he was able to play through it that day in order to finish out the match. The severity of the injury is unknown.