Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has eased injury fears around Wayne Rooney, revealing that he wanted to replace one of his strikers against Leicester City as Rooney and Anthony Martial were not running in behind the Foxes defence.

Leicester went ahead in the 24th minute at the King Power Stadium, but Bastian Schweinsteiger got free of his marker from a corner to head the visitors level just before half time.




Manchester United dominated possession throughout, but struggled to create clear cut chances, and Van Gaal withdrew Rooney in the 68th minute, bringing on Memphis Depay.

It had been thought Rooney could be injured, but Van Gaal revealed that the change was tactical and as the Englishman had taken a small knock it was easier to bring him off than Martial.
 


He told MUTV: "No, I don’t think it’s an injury to Wayne. I wanted to change one of the strikers.

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"It could have been Martial or it could have been Rooney because they were not always running behind the central defenders, and I want that", the Dutchman continued.

"Because of this, I wanted to change, but then he was limping and then the choice was easy for me to make."

Rooney has a week to shake off any injury niggles before Manchester United's next game, with West Ham United visiting Old Trafford next Saturday.

Then the Red Devils face a do-or-die visit to Germany to take on Wolfsburg in their final Champions League group stage game.