Argentine international Gabriel Heinze is set to make his Manchester United debut and Ruud Van Nistelrooy could return from injury via the substitute's bench at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

However, new signing Wayne Rooney is still three weeks away from a return to action with the England striker still recovering from a broken foot sustained at Euro 2004 in June, manager Alex Ferguson said on Friday.

Heinze is yet to play for United since a 6.9-million-pound ($12.31 million) move from Paris St Germain in June because of international commitments at the Copa America and the Olympic Games, where he won a gold medal in the soccer tournament.

But with United's defence missing Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, John O'Shea and Quinton Fortune, the 26-year-old left-sided defender, who only arrived at the club on Tuesday, is in line to make his first appearance in the English Premier League.

"There's a big chance because Wes Brown hasn't really had any football and Gary Neville is out. It does leave me with a problem," Ferguson told a news conference.

"Quinton Fortune is not fit yet, so I think there's every chance that Gabriel Heinze will play."

VAN NISTELROOY RECOVERY

Ferguson said he was tempted to name Van Nistelrooy among his substitutes for the game at the Reebok Stadium following the Dutch international's recovery from a hernia operation, but the 18-year-old Rooney was not yet fit.

"Wayne is not ready," said Ferguson, who is also without Louis Saha after he sustained a knee injury playing for France in midweek.

"He's training on his own with our remedial department. The injury he's had is still on the medical side, but he should be ready in maybe three weeks.

"But Ruud is getting along fine and is very close. It's a major decision and putting him on the bench tomorrow is maybe the sensible thing.

"He's done all of the training in the last 10 days and done everything I've asked of him. He just needs to get back into football now."

United, who may use fit-again Roy Keane at centre-half, go to third-placed Bolton seven points behind leaders Arsenal and Chelsea.

However, Ferguson is refusing to read too much into the standings at this stage of the season.

"It's early and I'm not going to get into this over-hyped situation. We don't want to be behind teams, but we've been behind teams many times over the years," he said.

"It's so early in the season it's not an issue for us at this moment in time. March and April will be an issue."