Fergie ponders striker reinforcement
Ruud van Nistelrooy has a hernia problem, Louis Saha a medial ligament injury and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will miss the rest of the season after a knee operation.
With three of his four first-choice forwards ruled out, the situation is taxing for Ferguson ahead of tonight's Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Bucharest.
Wayne Rooney is the obvious candidate but Ferguson would need to convince the United board to buy the £30m-rated Everton striker.
Asked if he was looking to sign a replacement for Solskjaer, Ferguson said: "I can't answer that one, I'm not really sure of that. At the moment we are just taking stock of our situation.
"Ruud is a straightforward one, he should be back training in a month and should be back playing in six weeks, so we know the timescale.
"As for Louis, it's a bit more difficult to assess just when he's going to get back but we hope three weeks will see him back playing.
"He's able to do his preparation work and rehabilitation work without affecting his injury so when he gets back he should be straight into training, we are hopeful of that."
The alternative to signing a player such as Rooney is to seek a short-term solution, bringing in a player on loan or a free transfer to help United out of their predicament. Real Madrid's Fernando Morientes, who spent last season on loan at Monaco, could come into that category.
Ferguson is without nine first- teamers for the first leg in Bucharest due to injury, suspension or the Olympics and the United boss believes Dinamo will be no pushovers.
He said: "It's not a great situation to be in for us - obviously it would be preferable to have all your players but from time to time during the season you are always going to have players injured and we are in a bad spell.
"It would be preferable not to be in the Champions League qualifying stage but it has happened in the past, two years ago, and when we won the competition in 1999.
"We have got experienced players with us, the Community Shield game on Sunday will have brought them on but Dinamo will be difficult opposition - they are a decent team.
"My experience of Romanian football goes back to my Aberdeen days and it has always been healthy.
"Steaua Bucharest had a good performance last year against Liverpool and if you take that as a barometer it should be a good game."
Romanian double winners Dinamo have two players suspended - goalkeeper Cristian Munteanu, who was sent off for handball against Slovakian champions MSK Zilina in the second qualifying round, and Ionut Badea who will miss both legs.
Ionel Danciulescu is the dangerman in Ioan Andone's side - he scored both goals in the 2-0 aggregate win over Zilina and was also the country's top marksman last season with 21 goals.
United's preparations were thrown into disarray by a thunderstorm in Bucharest last night.
Plans to train at the National Stadium had to be scrapped after a torrential downpour as Romanian officials feared for the pitch.
Instead, United players went to Dinamo's run-down club ground to train but no sooner had they taken to the field than they were forced off again by lightning close to the pitch.
Eventually, the storm relented to allow training to take place.
Fears about the pitch at the National Stadium becoming waterlogged have been expressed earlier this week and a UEFA delegate and the referee will carry out an inspection this morning.
Alan Smith is likely to lead the attack with back-up from Paul Scholes.
Skipper Roy Keane should be in midfield with Ryan Giggs, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Darren Fletcher.
Wes Brown's injury leaves more gaps in defence and Gary Neville should join Mikael Silvestre at centre-back.
Howard, Carroll, Ricardo, G Neville, P Neville, O'Shea, Fortune, Keane, Fletcher, Djemba-Djemba, Giggs, Scholes, Smith, Richardson, Forlan, Miller, Bellion, Eagles, Bardsley.
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