United Handed Major Injury Lift Ahead of Decisive Champions League Tie

Manchester United winger Adnan Januzaj is fit for his side's crucial Champions League group game away at Real Sociedad.

Januzaj played the full 90 minutes in the 3-1 Premier League win over Fulham at the weekend but was the victim of a stamp by defender Sascha Riether, which The Football Association have since taken retrospective action against.

The 18 year old has only made four starts this season but has often proved crucial for the champions, scoring twice on his full debut against Sunderland, and his availability for the crucial game against Real is a huge boost to manager David Moyes.

"The distance we were away made it impossible to take it in," said Moyes, who had not originally seen the incident at Craven Cottage. "It's a bad stamp and it does look deliberate. But that's for the referee to deal with on the day or, if nowadays they look at it differently, they can decide afterwards.

"I do think Adnan may need a bit of protection. He's getting kicked so I think he deserves a bit more protection than what he's getting at this present moment in time."

"We've spoken to Adnan about it," the Scot added. "He gets kicked in training every day and he gets up.

"He's learnt from the good professionals that he has to get on with it and accept it. He only needs to look at Messi, who is the best in the world at getting kicked and then getting on with it and continuing to produce magic.

"I'm certainly not comparing him in any way to Lionel Messi but the way Messi gets up after getting kicked is how we hope Adnan behaves.

"It's not a case of asking for protection but, somewhere along the line, if he's going to keep playing the way he's playing, then he's going to need to get some protection. We'll never ask for it - it's up to the referees."

United have won just two of 21 European trips to Spain, the most recent coming against Valencia in 2010 virtue of Javier Hernandez's late winner and with defensive pair Rafael and Jonny Evans both out Moyes will be glad to have Januzaj on board.

Despite leading Group A ahead of Bayer Leverkusen and Shakhtar Donetsk, anything short of a win over Real, who are seventh in La Liga but bottom of their Champions League group and without a point, will represent a significant blow to United's hopes of reaching the knock-out phase.

While a win won't guarantee qualification for the last 16, reaching the 10-point milestone which is generally regarded as the required total to reach the knock-out phase will be a significant victory for Moyes after questions were asked prior to the season over his European experience.

Nevertheless, United remain outsiders to go all the way in the Champions League in Moyes' first season in charge, with bookmakers offering odds as long as 20/1 for the three-time winners to succeed come Lisbon in 2014.