Louis van Gaal reveals five Manchester United stars will miss Watford clash

Louis van Gaal revealed at his pre-match press conference that illness will sideline captain Rooney while Martial misses out due to the knock he received on worldwide duty for France against England at Wembley on Tuesday.

“He was in quite a bit of pain after the match”, he said.

Manager Van Gaal, who could choose between youngster James Wilson and winger Memphis Depay in attack, hopes that Rooney and Martial will both be fit for Wednesday’s Champions League game against PSV Eindhoven.

With the worldwide break out of the way and a busy fixture list ahead of them, Manchester United were hoping for a cleaner bill of health at the start of a hectic period of the season.

Alli was once again involved, releasing Raheem Sterling down the left to send in a superb far-post cross for Wayne Rooney, whose technique didn’t let him down as he volleyed home from close range for his 51 England goal (48′).

The Blues ace has been out of action with a hamstring problem – but he took to social media last night to explain he was looking forward to his return.

The teenager won the ball with a crunching tackle and exchanged passes with Rooney before banging a long-range drive into the top corner in the 39th minute. “It’s not certain and I think Rooney may also play then because illness is not something of many days”.

Those encouraging displays by emerging England players have led Roy Hodgson to warn his injured stars that they will have to battle their way back into his plans for Euro 2016.

“I’ve never experienced going into a game with something like this having happened”. I would have to pick the best players at the time and against France someone like Dele Alli and Eric Dier, were really good.