Reading will be without striker Leroy Lita, wingers Glen Little and Bobby Convey and defender Ibrahima Sonko.
Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann is expected to play despite not having fully recovered from a broken hand.
Man Utd (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Brown, Simpson, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre, Evra, O'Shea, Carrick, Hargreaves, Eagles, Scholes, Fletcher, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney, Nani, Anderson, Tevez.
Reading (from): Hahnemann, Federici, Murty, De la Cruz, Ingimarsson, Bikey, Duberry, Shorey, Seol, Oster, Harper, Gunnarsson, Cisse, Hunt, Doyle, Kitson, Long.
Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson:
"What you want to see in a team that has won the league is more authority, consistency and continuity in their game.
"We have noticed that in the training sessions in the Far East. There is a far more stable situation now.
"We expect the young players to improve a lot, not just Rooney and Ronaldo but Nani and Anderson as well, and we expect more from Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic.
"We also have the right people to call on in terms of experience, so overall I am happy with the mix."
Reading skipper Graeme Murty:
"We showed last season we can give anyone a game.
"We know that with United's array of attacking talent we will need to be full out.
"We gave them a real fright in the FA Cup, coming from 3-0 down and I think if we'd have got an equaliser we'd have gone on and won the game.
"They will want to beat us. We want to get off to a good start as well."