Michael Owen has been ruled out of Manchester United’s final Champions League group match against Valencia at Old Trafford on Tuesday as he is not yet fully fit (United 8/11 to beat Valencia).

The former Liverpool striker has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since early October when he was substituted during the Red Devils’ goalless draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

The 30-year-old returned to full training last week and is progressing well but Ferguson does not want to risk a repeat of what happened earlier in the season.

“Michael has no chance of being involved tomorrow,” he said. “He returned to training in the middle of last week but we are going to make sure he gets two more weeks behind him.

“We don’t want to take any risks because it was probably our fault he was injured last time.”

United have already secured their place in the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition but the boss is keen to nail down top spot in the group in order to avoid one of the bigger clubs in the first knock-out match.

The veteran tactician has hinted that he will put out a strong side, with any result apart from a Valencia win good enough to top Group C and head into the latter stages full of confidence.

Whether or not the boss will be true to his word is open to question as United face league-leading Arsenal next time out in the Premier League on Monday, December 13 and Chelsea just six days later (United 8/1 to win Champions League).