Phil Neville has been ruled out for two or three weeks due to surgery on a knee injury suffered against Fulham in September.
Marouane Fellaini also misses tomorrow’s match against Hull as he serves a one-match suspension for accumulating five yellow cards this season, while Diniyar Bilyaletdinov sits out the final game of his three-match ban.
Fellow midfielder Steven Pienaar has an outside chance of featuring against Hull after eight weeks out with a knee injury but is more likely to be kept back for Sunday’s Merseyside derby.
Provisional squad: Howard, Heitinga, Yobo, Baines, Distin, Hibbert, Cahill, Gosling, Rodwell, Saha, Yakubu, Neill, Nash, Jo, Baxter, Agard, Wallace, Pienaar.