Tevez only made his Manchester United debut in Wednesday's fiery 1-1 draw at Portsmouth, where Ronaldo was sent off late on for violent conduct.

This weekend's hotly-anticipated City of Manchester Stadium clash will see the Portugal winger serve the first instalment of a three-match suspension, while Rooney is out for even longer with a fractured metatarsal.

Not yet fully match fit, Tevez tired in the final 15 minutes at Fratton Park but manager Ferguson is now desperate for him to recover in time for Sunday.

"He was absolutely terrific," Ferguson told MUTV. "He made a great contribution - hopefully he's fit and ready for Sunday.

"We're going to be missing Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo for the derby. But the good thing is that I got 90 minutes out of Carlos.

"He tired in the last 15 minutes but I couldn't take him off because he is capable of scoring from any situation whether he is tired or not."

Meanwhile, Ferguson is likely to escape censure from the Football Association in the wake of Ronaldo's red card, despite saying referee Steve Bennett "loved the opportunity to send him off again".

Ferguson believes Ronaldo fell for Portsmouth's "intimidation tactics" and castigated last season's Footballer of the Year, saying he had only himself to blame.

But Ferguson added: "Steve Bennett sent him off at City (in January 2006) and will have loved the opportunity to send him off again."

FA Cup final referee Bennett, who was in charge of Chelsea's Wembley win over United in May, has had several run-ins with Ferguson before and is likely to take the line recently put forward by retired top official Graham Poll that managers too often bring the game into disrepute with personal comments.

But although FA officials have already studied reports and comments from the Fratton Park game a spokesman said they were "unlikely" to take the matter further - except maybe to write to Ferguson asking the Scot to explain his words.

Last season the FA hit Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger with fines for post-match comments to and about officials, but do not appear to include Ferguson's remarks in the same category.

The United chief has enough problems on his plate after the team's worst start to a season since 1998, having taken just two points from their opening two games.

New £17million midfielder Owen Hargreaves and skipper Gary Neville have yet to figure because of knee injuries and strikers Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha are also crocked.