Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney isn’t in Manchester United’s squad for their game against Midtjylland on Thursday and will miss Arsenal’s visit to Old Trafford at the end of the month.

Rooney has had a difficult season under Louis van Gaal, but has recently found his best form of the campaign, making the injury an even bigger blow for Manchester United.

The striker has only scored seven Premier League goals all season, but five of those have come since the start of 2016. He’s also scored two FA Cup goals in that time, but van Gaal will now have to find a way to play without England’s record goalscorer. Suffering knee ligament damage, Rooney will miss up to two months and is definitely out of Arsenal’s trip to Old Trafford next Sunday.

The Red Devils have failed to find cohesion all season, and Rooney’s injury may end up coming as a blessing in disguise. Anthony Martial was impressive centrally earlier in the season but was moved wide to accommodate Rooney soon after arriving from AS Monaco. The Frenchman will now likely return to a central berth, with Adnan Januzaj or Memphis Depay given a run out wide.

Time will tell, and on the face of it Rooney missing the game against Arsenal is a positive thing, especially as he has such a good record against us, but United may just end up looking stronger without him.