Manchester United and England were dealt a severe blow last night when Wayne Rooney was ruled out of the start of the season and possibly much longer after being struck down by a tropical virus during his club’s controversial trip to Nigeria late last month.

Rooney has not trained since returning from the African country with the illness nine days ago and will miss United’s opening match of the new Barclays Premier League season, at home to Newcastle United on Sunday week, and probably England’s friendly against the Czech Republic at Wembley three days later, the national team’s final warm-up game before the start of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

The revelation will call into question United’s decision to fly to Nigeria for a money-spinning exhibition game against Portsmouth at the end of their ten-day tour to South Africa, although of more pressing concern to Sir Alex Ferguson will be the forward’s wellbeing and the fact that the manager is likely to start the season without at least seven senior first-team players.

In addition to Rooney, United will be missing Louis Saha, Park Ji Sung and Owen Hargreaves, all of whom have knee problems, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been ruled out until October with an ankle injury. Nani is suspended for the first two matches of the campaign after his red card against West Ham United last season, while Anderson is away with Brazil at the Olympic Games in Beijing and is therefore unavailable until the end of the month. Michael Carrick has also been laid low with a virus contracted in Abuja, although Ferguson is hopeful that the midfield player will be available to play in the FA Community Shield against Portsmouth at Wembley on Sunday.

With Rooney and Ronaldo, who will return to Manchester this week to step up his rehabilitation after surgery, ruled out and Carlos Tévez the only established striker who is fit, United are likely to step up their efforts to sign Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgaria forward, in the coming days, after having an initial offer of £20.5 million rejected by Tottenham Hotspur.

Although Rooney has not been to hospital, United have been analysing the nature of his virus at their medical laboratory at the club’s Carrington training headquarters. As with the rest of the squad, Rooney took malaria tablets and was given injections for yellow fever and hepatitis before the trip, although Ferguson conceded yesterday that the matter was a cause for concern.

“I doubt we’ll get Rooney for the start of the season with this virus he’s had,” Ferguson, who reiterated that Ronaldo would not be leaving for Real Madrid, said. “It’s a virus he’s picked up in Nigeria, I believe, and it’s not a nice one. He’s not trained. There are [11] days until the start of the season and he’s not back yet. We came back on July 28, so it’s a long time.

“We’ve done all the investigation — we’ve got the facilities here to do those things now. We had malaria tablets and it’s nothing to do with that — it’s not malaria.”

Despite the long list of absentees and a gruelling fixture list, Rio Ferdinand struck a more positive note yesterday when he spoke of the collective desire of the players to become the first team since AC Milan in 1990 to retain the European Cup.

“I remember seeing the great clubs that won the European Cup back to back and that is the gauntlet that we have thrown down to ourselves,” the England defender said. “To become a really great team is what we want.

“If we can get back to that \ final and win it again, then we can start talking about being a really great team. As of now, we are a team that has been successful, but we still have a lot more to give.”

Ferguson hopes to have found a replacement for Carlos Queiroz as assistant manager by the end of next month.

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