Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was thinking of England when he rested Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand for victory at Bolton Wanderers, claims No2 Mike Phelan.

Rooney and Ferdinand missed the 4-0 win, though travelled with the United squad to Munich this morning.

Phelan joked: "I think the manager's getting a bit soft. He bowed to public opinion and rested them for England!

"No, they have a couple of knocks. Rio had a little problem in training so we decided not to take a risk with him and Wayne was the same.

"He didn't train for a few days and we just thought, you know with the calendar coming up and the schedule we've got, we could afford to leave them two out today and go into battle with what we had and it worked."