Fergie: Rooney fit to face Newcastle

Alex Ferguson has declared Wayne Rooney fit for Manchester United’s Barclays Premier League clash with Newcastle on Sunday – but refused to be drawn on reports that Dimitar Berbatov is about to sign from Tottenham.

Rooney missed the last two weeks of pre-season after picking up a virus on the club’s tour of Africa.

However, the England forward has been training all of this week, with Ferguson confirming that Rooney will be part of his plans to face the Magpies.

“Wayne is fit to play on Sunday,” said Ferguson.

“He has trained all week. We took him down to the Community Shield last Sunday and he did some work for us then.

“From them on he has been progressing really well.”

Ferguson was less firm about Berbatov and the chances of him being involved against Newcastle, even though rumours are circulating United’s Carrington training HQ that a deal for the Bulgarian is almost complete.

It is thought Berbatov was not at Tottenham this morning and has instead arrived in Manchester for a medical.

However, there has been no official word from the club and Ferguson is not entering the debate either.

“I have nothing to say, absolutely nothing at all,” he said.

Ferguson did confirm that Owen Hargreaves, Park Ji-Sung and Louis Saha would not face Kevin Keegan’s side, while Nani is suspended and Anderson is on Olympic duty with Brazil.