The 27-year-old posted pictures of the cut on-line to prove his absence was fully justified.

And now Moyes must decide when to bring Rooney back.

“He is in great physical shape,” said Moyes.

“Obviously he has a cut right in the middle of his forehead which could split because the skin is very thin.

“But he has had his stitches out and it has knitted.

“We just have to see where the level of risk is with his injury.”

Moyes also has doubts over Rafael and Phil Jones, who have hamstring and ankle problems respectively.

However, he does have Marouane Fellaini available following his £27.5m arrival from Everton.

The move was only completed in the last minutes of the transfer window after Moyes finally gave up on his hope of landing another Everton player, Leighton Baines.

“We had chosen to do it the way we did because we wanted to try and get Leighton Baines and we didn’t want to give up on that until the last minute,” Moyes said.

“We felt the best way to do that was to try and keep the two deals together. Only at the last minute did we split them.

“They talk about the great Belgium team but every time I go to see Belgium, I always come away thinking Marouane is the best player.”

Having been spoken of as a potential United signing for most of the summer, Fellaini admitted he started to fear his dream move was never going to be completed.

“With the chairman at Everton you never know,” he said.

“Sometimes I think there is no chance for me to join Manchester United.

“But in the end I was so happy because the chairman accepted the deal.”

The transfer was only completed after Fellaini gave up an estimated £4m in salary and also drove to Everton’s training ground at Finch Farm to plead with manager Roberto Martinez to be allowed to leave.

“I talked with the manager,” said the Belgium international.

“It was a big opportunity for me to join one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“I want to win trophies. I play football for this.

“With Manchester United I have a big chance to win something.”