Nemanja Vidic will miss the start of the Barclays Premier League season. Vidic has been ruled out of the Community Shield showpiece against Chelsea on Sunday at Wembley and the following game with Birmingham because of a calf injury.
Wes Brown is also sidelined this weekend with a thigh problem but is expected back for the opening league match while Gary Neville is unavailable because of a groin strain.
Ferguson said: "Neither Wes or Nemanja have long-term injuries. I would expect Wes to be fit for the game a week on Sunday.
"As for Vidic he pulled his calf in the warm-up in Munich (against Bayern Munich) and is two weeks away.
"Gary is doing a little bit of training and coming on fine but I do not think he will make Sunday."
With goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar out for up to ten weeks with broken fingers, Ferguson has to choose between Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak against Chelsea.
Both played a half in the game against Valencia in midweek and Ferguson added: "We have a selection dilemma as to who plays in goal on Sunday. It is not an easy one for me."
Man Utd (from): Foster, Kuszczak, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Scholes, Anderson, Gibson, Nani, Giggs, Rooney, Owen, Berbatov, Macheda, Tosic, Fabio, Cleverley, De Laet.
fret not, got evans to replace vidic and o shea to replace wes brown.
I am wondering who on earth is man utd no 1 at RB position now? is it o shea, wes brown or rafael?
rafael first choice from this season onwards.
Originally posted by limpper:rafael first choice from this season onwards.
nah. o shea has more experienced than him.
Sir Alex Ferguson has multiple defensive selection problems ahead of Sunday's Community Shield clash with Chelsea at Wembley.
Wes Brown (thigh), Nemanja Vidic (calf), Gary Neville (groin) and Edwin van der Sar (hand) are all missing from the squad that travels to London this weekend.
"Everyone is fit apart from Wes, Vidic and Neville," Sir Alex confirmed to the press on Friday.
"Gary has done a bit of training and he is coming along fine, and I expext Wes to be fit for the Birmingham match.
"Vidic has pulled his calf and is another week or two away, while Edwin's injury is a bad one. He's out for 8-10 weeks, of course. So my first selection dilemma for Sunday is in goal. It is not an easy one for me.
"If you look at the games Ben and Tomasz have played, Tomasz has actually had more to do and more saves to make as he did on Wednesday [against Valencia]. So it's a little bit of a dilemma and I'll speak to them both about it."
Sir Alex says the Community Shield is normally the final step in assessing his players' fitness, but this year says his squad is already at a good level and he expects a good performance.
"In the past I've treated the Community Shield as a barometer for fitness and giving players some minutes on the clock. But this year I'm not looking at it like that.
"All the players are at a good level fitness-wise and everyone should be able to give a good account of themselves. And when you play Chelsea, pride comes into it and the players want to win."