Jonny Evans and John O'Shea remain doubtful for Manchester United's trip to Portsmouth on Saturday.

Evans picked up a calf injury on international duty with Northern Ireland a fortnight ago, while O'Shea suffered an thigh injury during the Republic of Ireland's controversial World Cup play-off defeat to France.

Patrice Evra is set to return, along with Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Edwin van der Sar and Darren Fletcher as United look to close the gap on leaders Chelsea to two points ahead of the Londoners' meeting with Arsenal.

Asmir Begovic is set to replace injured England goalkeeper David James for Avram Grant's first game in charge of Pompey.

Grant, still officially Pompey's director of football until paperwork arrives enabling him to be installed as successor to sacked manager Paul Hart, could stick with Jamie Ashdown but highly-rated Bosnia international Begovic was recalled from a loan spell at Ipswich earlier this week.

Veteran defender Hermann Hreidarsson is likely to keep his place after coming back from injury in the 1-0 defeat at Stoke but Grant may recall French loanee Frederic Piquionne in place of Kanu, who made his first Barclays Premier League start of the season last week.

Teams:

Portsmouth (from): Begovic, Ben Haim, Kaboul, Wilson, Hreidarsson, Brown, Yebda, O'Hara, Boateng, Dindane, Piquionne, Kanu, Swift, Hughes, Van den Borre, Mokoena, Belhadj, Mullins, Ashdown.

Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, Neville, O'Shea, Brown, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Rafael, Valencia, Anderson, Fletcher, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Rooney, Owen, Macheda, Welbeck.