The Dutch midfielder was hurt in a training ground collision with Dirk Kuyt while on international duty and could also miss the first leg of the Europa League play-off against Petrolul Ploiesti.
Pablo Hernandez and Jonjo Shelvey are available again after their respective groin injury and illness, while Wilfried Bony is set to feature despite only arriving back from Ivory Coast's friendly against Mexico in New Jersey late last on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, David Moyes must decide whether to include Wayne Rooney in the squad for his first Premier League game as Manchester United manager at Swansea.
United arrive with an aura because of what has gone before to take on a Swans side whose own success last term etched itself into the record books after what can easily be argued as the club’s greatest ever season.
The thing with history, though, that it is in the past.
And, as it is on the opening day of a season more than any other, it is the future and what lies ahead that now matters.
For both clubs at the Liberty Stadium in this early evening kick-off; they must know that while history can be built upon, it cannot be relied upon.
David Moyes will bring his Manchester United team to Swansea on the season's opening dayDavid Moyes will bring his Manchester United team to Swansea on the season's opening day
Yet while there remains real intrigue as how United will cope with such a challenge under new Scottish stewardship, it is how Swansea have embraced that fact that offers such optimism. Not only of today, where there are genuine hopes of a first Premier League victory over the men from Old Trafford, but of the long season that stands before them.
Manager Michael Laudrup had repeatedly warned that Swansea needed to improve just to be in with a chance of meeting mid-table targets. Whether you buy the belief that such thinking was the crux of the matter for the summer tension over his future at the club or not, Swansea have done that.
They have spent like never before, although the £20m on six recruits indeed seems like good budgeted business given the strength of the squad the Dane can call upon later today. Including, of course, that striker in £12m man Wilfried Bony that was so clearly needed to add greater goal threat and perhaps get even more from that man Michu, a player who had the now retired Ferguson cursing his scouting staff last year.
Rooney completed 65 minutes of his first game of the summer when England defeated Scotland on Wednesday and is expected to be on the bench at the Liberty Stadium.
Venue:Liberty Stadium
Kick-off: Saturday 17 August (kick-off 17:30 BST).
Swansea (Possible, 4-4-1-1): Vorm; Rangel, Williams, Amat, B Davies; Routledge, Britton, Shelvey, Hernandez; Michu; Bony.
Out: De Guzman (concussion).
Manchester United (Possible, 4-4-1-1): De Gea; Jones, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Valencia, Carrick, Anderson, Cleverley; Welbeck; Van Persie.
Out: Fletcher (colitis), Hernandez, Rafael (both hamstring), Nani (groin), Young (unspecified).
