Champions League:Federico Macheda will keep his place in Manchester United's squad for their Champions League quarter-final against FC Porto tomorrow night.
The 17-year-old scored the last-gasp winner to beat Aston Villa on his debut yesterday and Alex Ferguson does not intend to dump the Italian even though he has three senior players returning.
Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic are all back from suspension, but Rio Ferdinand is out with his troubled groin injury.
The 30-year-old watched from the stands on Sunday as United beat Aston Villa 3-2 to go back to the top of the Premier League but the defender has not recovered in time to be considered to face the Portuguese outfit.
The former Leeds player has had problems in the past with his back, an injury which kept him out of the England side that beat Slovakia 4-0 in a friendly last week.
Ferdinand returned for his country's World Cup qualifying win over Ukraine days later but was withdrawn three minutes before the end.
It is believed the centre-back picked up the groin problem during that match but United boss Ferguson is hopeful he will be fit for the weekend trip to Sunderland.
The Scot also explained that all the players who missed Sunday's win over Villa through injury are unlikely to feature against Porto although Nemanja Vidic, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney are all available again after suspension.
Meanwhile Claudio Lotito, Lazio club president, where Macheda was signed from, said Macheda arrived in Manchester as a result of a cattle market where young players are snapped up by rich foreign clubs.
The 17-year-old is a product of Serie A side Lazio's youth system.
"It's unthinkable that a lad of 15 can be bought as if it was a cattle market," said Lotito.
"Normally these boys are not from wealthy families and they look for alternatives in foreign countries for economic reasons."
Born in Rome, Macheda joined United in 2007 and in August became the latest in a string of non-English youngsters to sign professional forms with a Premier League club.
Fifa wants to protect under-18 players and keep them with their local clubs but employment law complicates the situation.
"We knew that he was a great player, we did everything to keep him. We can not allow ourselves to behave in a way which I feel is immoral."
Lotito added that his mid-table side would be packed off on a training camp and may have wages held back after losing 2-0 at Siena on Sunday in the latest in a series of poor displays.
Team (from):Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, O'Shea, Neville, Vidic, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Eckersley, Ronaldo, Nani, Fletcher, Gibson, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Tevez, Welbeck, Macheda.
