Moyes Quells Van Persie Fall-Out Rumours With Positive Injury Update

Manchester United manager David Moyes has sought to quell suggestions regarding a falling out with striker Robin van Persie by claiming the Dutchman will return from injury against Stoke City.

Van Persie missed the Champions League win over Real Sociedad having nursed respective groin and toe injuries during the past few weeks, but his omission from the United squad was originally linked to a training ground bust up with Moyes earlier this week.

But the Scot has seemingly rubbished reports Van Persie' absence was motivated by the argument, and says United's joint-top scorer this season will return this weekend.

"I hope he will be fit for the weekend," Moyes said. "He has had a couple of niggling injuries even before he went on international duty.

"They have all just caught up on him a bit so I thought if I had a chance to give him a breather I would do and fortunately for us it worked out fine."

The supposed falling out with Van Persie comes during a week where many of Moyes' squad have been unsettled by the revelations in Sir Alex Ferguson's latest autobiography.

Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney come in for particular criticism from Ferguson, who retired as United boss at the end of last season.

Moyes has suffered a difficult start, losing three of his first eight league games but an unbeaten start to the club's Champions League campaign has given the ex-Everton boss some much needed rest bite from early critics.

Despite only claiming a narrow 1-0 win over Sociedad, United spurned a number of chances to make their lead greater, with Shinji Kagawa and Antonio Valencia guilty of second half misses.

"It was a job well done, a good performance," Moyes added.

"I was frustrated we couldn't kill them off because we had the same on Saturday, with a goal in the last minute. Today we had that feeling around us, but if we had scored five or six today it wouldn't have been out of place. We had an awful lot of opportunities and didn't finish it off.

"We gave away a couple of free-kicks on the edge of the box, and I was concerned about that. A couple of the decisions didn't quite go our way tonight, but it was a good result. We had to win the game at home."