At the time, Ferguson felt the 35-year-old would only be out for a couple of games.

However, so far, Scholes has missed six fixtures, a number that would have been even higher had it not been for the matches at Blackpool and Chelsea being postponed.

And Ferguson has now revealed the former England star will not be involved at West Brom tomorrow or, almost certainly, against Stoke next Tuesday as United look to manage a worrying injury given the combination of Scholes’ age and the recent departure of Park Ji-sung for the whole of January as he competes in the Asia Cup for South Korea.

“Paul had a little recurrence of the groin injury,” said Ferguson.

“We just told him to have a complete break, which is what he has done.

“Hopefully that break will get rid of the injury problem through rest and we will have him back training sometime next week.”