West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has admitted that he is hoping Wayne Rooney is not deemed fit enough to play for Manchester United in tomorrow night's FA Cup quarter-final replay.
Red Devils captain Rooney made his return from a two-month absence for United's Under-21s last night and reports suggest that he could feature at the Boleyn Ground on Wednesday.
Although Rooney has only scored seven Premier League goals this term, Bilic still says that he is a "massive" fan and would prefer it if he does not play tomorrow.
"To be fair I am a massive Rooney fan," PA quotes Bilic as saying. "Since he stepped on the pitch in an Everton shirt. He is for me - I don't know, I can't talk about Jimmy Greaves or Bobby Charlton or Bobby Moore or any of them - let's say my football era, Rooney is the best English player.
"I would rather him not play, put it that way. 100%, 70% fit, I would rather him watch the game. He played last night, him and Phil Jones. I don't know. On one hand, most of the teams on a good run, they don't change the team a lot.
"Now because they lost 3-0 [at Tottenham on Sunday] we really don't know who's going to play, is it going to be Rooney from the start, is it going to be [Marouane] Fellaini, is it going to be [Ander] Herrera? Is he going to change a lot or stick to the team?"
The winner of tomorrow's contest will go through to face Everton at Wembley in the semi-finals later this month.
Pascal Lemesre
