Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson defended teenage striker Wayne Rooney in wake of an incident involving Bolton Wanderers defender Tal Ben Haim during their weekend English Premier League match.

The English Football Association (FA) is expected to investigate Rooney's role in the episode, in which television pictures captured Rooney pushing his hand into Ben Haim's face in the first half of United's 2-0 victory at Old Trafford on Sunday.

"They [the FA] should look at the Bolton player but we will have to wait and see on that one," Ferguson was quoted as saying in The Independent newspaper on Tuesday.

"The biggest concern should be what the other player did. He was down on the ground for two minutes and he is the one that should be up before the FA, not Rooney.

"What he did was a disgrace and it's him that should be on a disrepute charge. He rolled around as if he was in agony and it was embarrassing but that issue has not even been addressed.

"All I hear about is what Wayne Rooney did. Did he punch the lad? No he didn't. He just brushed him off and the guy made an absolute meal of it."

Rooney escaped punishment during the match as referee Dermot Gallagher did not see the incident but the FA's video review panel could impose a ban.

"Wayne Rooney did nothing to deserve being brought up before the FA but because it's Wayne and because it's Manchester United, then I can understand the focus," Ferguson said at the club's Carrington training ground on the eve of their Premier League match at Aston Villa.

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce said Rooney was lucky not to be sent off.

"I admit Tal went down rather too easily but there is no getting away from the fact that Rooney pushed his hand into the lad's face," he told the BBC.

"He was lucky to get away with it because had the referee seen it he would have had to send him off."