Edwin van der Sar looks set to return to the Manchester United side in Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first-leg tie away to Roma.

Dutch goalkeeper van der Sar was on the flight to Italy on Monday morning after missing Saturday evening's 4-0 Premier League victory against Aston Villa at Old Trafford with a groin injury.

Michael Carrick, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs all travelled after coming off with knocks at the weekend.

Mikael Silvestre was a surprise addition to the party after recovering from a knee ligament injury, sustained in September.

However Nani was again missing and ruled out of the Stadio Olimpico clash because of a thigh strain.

Despite taking three points off the Italians in the group stage and knocking them out of the quarter-finals last season, defender Wes Brown expects a difficult game.

Their hosts knocked out Real Madrid in the last round and are right back in the Serie A title race.

Brown said: "It will be very tough. It is not going to be a walkover.

"We need to be okay tactically but we know we can progress in the competition.

"I feel we can go into the game with confidence after the way we defeated Villa."

United have now kept 19 clean sheets in the league and manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: "I have always maintained that if you defend well you have a chance of winning things.

"We know it is not going to be easy against Roma but in the form we are in we are looking forward to it."

Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Evra, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Brown, Ronaldo, Anderson, Rooney, Giggs, Park, Vidic, Carrick, Scholes, Pique, O'Shea, Silvestre, Kuszczak, Tevez, Eagles, Heaton, Welbeck.

TeamTalk / Eurosport