Manchester United have a chance to extend their lead at the top of the English Premier League on February 18 with a win over visiting Fulham.

Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov is likely to lead the United attack as Alex Ferguson is going to have Wayne Rooney  on the bench. The English striker has missed seven matches due to a hamstring injury and he is doubtful to have reached full fitness just yet.

Apart from Berbatov's return to the squad after the FA Cup win at Derby, United will be boosted further by the return of Nemanja Vidic, Carlos Tevez, and Michael Carrick.

Fulham manager  Ray Hodgson was due to check up on the form of winger Giles Barnes who is currently working his way back to full fitness.

"Giles Barnes is playing this afternoon in his first game for a long time. He came to the club after a long absence and is unfit. Our job is to get him fit and he's working hard to get fit but I don't think you'll see Giles playing any major part in our play until he's fit enough. He might be able to play a bit part and come on for 10-15 minutes as a substitute but if we're talking about him playing a serious role as a 90 minute player then first of all we have to get him physically fit," he said as quoted by the club's official website.

Fulham will also have a late fitness evaluations on Paul Konchesky and Andy Johnson, both of whom have muscle strains and are doubtful for the clash against the league leaders. To exacerbate matters for the visitors further, Dickson Etuhu is still out with a knee injury, so on-loan Olivier Dacourt should battle it on in his position in midfield instead.

"Dickson Etuhu hasn't recovered so he won't be taking part in the game. "After the match on Saturday we had one or two minor injury problems and a couple of players will be having fitness tests before we leave tomorrow (Wednesday) and that's Konchesky and Johnson," said Hodgson.

Man Utd (available): Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, Neville, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, O'Shea, Ronaldo, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Giggs, Park, Berbatov, Rooney, Tevez, Gibson, Welbeck.

Fulham (available): Schwarzer, Hughes, Konchesky, Pantsil, Hangeland, Johnson, Zamora, Nevland, Gera, Murphy, Kamara, Gray, Zuberbuhler, Stoor, Dempsey, Davies, Milsom, Brown, Kallio, Barnes, Dacourt.