Sir Alex Ferguson is confident that striker Wayne Rooney will not let his disappointing World Cup performance affect the way he plays for Manchester United when the new Premier League season starts next month (Rooney 5/1 – Premiership Top Scorer).

The Red Devils boss has spoken out to back his 24-year-old star player, who was singled out for criticism at the World Cup finals in South Africa as Fabio Capello’s side crashed out in the last 16 following a 4-1 mauling at the hands of Germany.

Rooney has been left out of United’s pre-season trip to the United States, which starts with a game against Celtic on Friday, to rest following the tournament.

But, while Ferguson acknowledges that the player will be disappointed with his own shortcomings, he does not think he will dwell on it in the new season as United aim to take the Premier League title back from Chelsea (United 5/2 Outright).

Ferguson told sportsnet.ca: “I don’t expect a hangover. I think there’ll still be a bit of disappointment in the lad.

“I think all the players coming back from the World Cup who didn’t do well, who didn’t reach their expectations may I say, will feel that they’ve missed something.

“That’s because the World Cup’s only once every four years. That’s the horrible part of that tournament.

“We have several players who have come back very, very disappointed. We’ve Patrice Evra for instance, Wayne Rooney of course, and Nemanja Vidic.”

Meanwhile, Ferguson is hoping that young Mexican striker Javier Hernandez will arrive at Old Trafford full of confidence after he ’surprised a lot of people’ with some of his performances in the tournament.

He added: “So whereas we’ve got some disappointments from players like Wayne, Nemanja and Patrice, I think we’re going to have a positive effect from Javier.”

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