Louis van Gaal has confirmed that long-term absentee Luke Shaw and Germany's World Cup winning midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will miss Manchester United's FA Cup semi-final clash against Everton on Saturday.
The Red Devils defeated West Ham United 1-0 in the quarter-final replay and that helped them seal a berth in the last four of the competition. The Dutchman will make a trip to Wembley for the first time as United manager and he will be without the services of Shaw and the former Bayern Munich star, along Adnan Januzaj.
Schweinsteiger will miss the remainder of the season, while Shaw has stepped up his recovery as he targets a first team return. Van Gaal admitted that he has no fresh injury concerns for the FA Cup semi-final.
"The squad is nearly fit. Only Shaw and Schweinsteiger are unable to play and maybe Januzaj because he didn't play yet in the second team. But we have a full squad of fit players," Van Gaal told United's official website.
The situation has left the former Barcelona manager with 24 players available for selection for the last four tie. United boss will be forced to leave six players behind when he selects his 18-man squad for the trip to Wembley and Van Gaal claims he will have to disappoint half a dozen players as all of them want to be a part of the squad to face Roberto Martinez's side.
"Every player wants to play in a semi-final. I have to select 18 players and I have now 24 players fit so I have to disappoint six players and that is not fine for a manager," United manager explained.
Rooney was one of the star players in United's 2-0 victory over Crysta Palace. When asked whether the England international's performance need praise, Van Gaal said: "Of course, but that counts for every player I think. Not only Wayne. The media and now you are talking about Wayne but we have a squad of 27 players and I am happy with everybody."
