Still hope for O'Shea
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Rafael and Fabio will be back to boost United's depleted defence against Hull on Sunday, Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed at Thursday's press conference.
Rafael has been sidelined since the home defeat to Besiktas last month with a foot injury, while Fabio returned from the bench at Fulham last week. Both Da Silva twins are set to be thrust into action at the KC Stadium to bolster a threadbare backline."We rushed Fabio back a little bit, but given the situation we find ourselves in sometimes you have to do that," admitted the boss. "Rafa's only trained for a few days but he will be involved on Sunday."
Sir Alex also confirmed Wes Brown and Nemanja Vidic should both be available for the home game against Wigan on 30 December, and that the Reds' medical team are working to get one of the centre-backs fit for this weekend."We're trying to get one of them fit for Sunday, but we'll have to see," added Sir Alex. "The young boy [Ritchie] De Laet did okay in the last game at Fulham until we lost the first goal.
"The power and the strength of [Bobby] Zamora made things difficult for us and we looked fragile from then on. It's understandable in a way - you can get away with playing midfielders at centre-back once or twice, but it proved to be very difficult for us at Fulham."
The United boss is expecting an equally tough game against an improving Tigers side, saying: "Hull will be encouraged by our injury problems, and I'm sure they'll have a go at us.
"We have to make sure we are better attacking-wise than we were at Fulham. We had quite a bit of possession, but didn't make a lot of chances. We have to improve the imagination of our play on Sunday."
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Some good news indeed. Get rid of Neville already!
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Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans are edging their way towards a return to first team action.
Ferdinand is continuing with his rehabilitation work to cure a niggling back injury, while Evans is making progress with his recovery from a calf strain.
Ferdinand is currently only able to do work in the gym, but Evans began light training on Wednesday and Sir Alex is hopeful of having the Northern Ireland international available for the FA Cup tie against Leeds next Sunday.
“Jonny's done a bit of training but he’s still feeling pain and we’re trying to get him through that,” revealed the boss. “If he continues with his progress I’m hopeful of getting him back quite soon and we’ll maybe have three centre-backs [Evans, Brown and Vidic] available for the Leeds game.”
A return date for Ferdinand is more difficult to pinpoint, but Sir Alex is convinced it won’t be too long before he’s able to call on the 31-year-old.
“I don’t think he’s too far away, but it’s difficult to put a time limit on back injuries,” he admitted. “We gave him an injection just over two weeks ago and we had to let that settle down for a week. He’s since been carrying on with his gym work and we’re hoping the pain will go away.
“He’s not shown his frustration – he’s quite a composed, laid-back lad, but I’m sure he’s feeling it,” added the manager. “Footballers want to play football and he’ll be thinking about all the big games that he’s missing out on. So it’s not easy for him.” -
Sir Alex Ferguson has raised the possibility that Manchester United defender John O'Shea might be sidelined for two more months.
O'Shea picked up a thigh injury during the Republic of Ireland's shattering World Cup exit in France last month that Ferguson initially felt was nothing more than a dead leg.
However, O'Shea has not played since. And while Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans are inching towards their returns from injury and Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown have already made it back to the Red Devils first team, for O'Shea the delay goes on.
"There is no sign at all of recovery for John,'' said Ferguson. "It is his first injury at the club and he is a big loss because he is such a versatile player. We just want to get him back but it could be a couple of months yet.''
Ferguson revealed that when O'Shea got back from France, blood congealed in his muscle, raising the possibility of further problems. It consigned O'Shea to the sidelines at a time when his ability to play right across the back four would have been invaluable.
In his absence, the likes of Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick have been forced to help out in defence, one of the major reasons why United lost twice in three games to put their Premier League title hopes in jeopardy.
The joint return of Vidic and Brown has coincided with a two-match winning run over Christmas that yielded eight goals, five of them coming against Wigan at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.
Vidic and Brown will continue to shoulder the burden for now but Ferguson is optimistic Evans will return to duty in the next ten days, with Ferdinand not too far behind after United finally got to the root of a back problem that has plagued the England defender for 18 months.
"Jonny has been involved in the football side for a few days,'' said Ferguson, who is celebrating his 68th birthday on Thursday. "He is doing well and should be back quicker, within the next 10 days or so.
"Rio is nowhere near that but the main thing is there is no recurrence of the back problem. That is what we have been waiting for. We wanted him to come through the test of running and turning. He is doing his programme in the gymnasium, which is good and at the moment it is looking very healthy.''
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Manchester United defender John O'Shea is set to miss the rest of the season after suffering a blood clot problem.
United have had significant problems in defence this season, with Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, Wes Brown, Rafael Da Silva, Fabio Da Silva and Gary Neville all facing significant spells out injured, and O'Shea has not featured since Republic of Ireland's World Cup play-off defeat to France in mid-November.
It had initially been thought that O'Shea would make a swift return from the injury, but complications mean he is now unlikely to play again in the current campaign.
"He's got a terrible injury at the moment," Sir Alex Ferguson said. "It's one of those sorts of injuries that are unusual. It's like a dead leg except a dead leg is usually only three or four days.
"The problem is that the blood clot became all knotted and when it gets knotted you get calcification so therefore it's a long process to clear that up and he'll probably miss the season now.
"It's a bad blow for the boy and for the team because he can play anywhere. When you look at all the problems I've had with the back four this season, he could have played every single one."
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F*ck! My favorite player out the rest of the season, gotta be sh*tting me!
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blood clot must be serious. can die one I reckon if blood clot.
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Sir Alex Ferguson is still hopeful that John O'Shea could play again this season, after initially fearing the Irishman was out for the remainder of the campaign.
The defender has not played for United since November, due to complications with a dead-leg style injury sustained on international duty for the Republic of Ireland.
Earlier this week, Sir Alex was quoted as saying, "He'll probably miss the season now," but in Friday's press conference, the boss was slightly more positive about O'Shea's chances - based on the recovery of another United player.
"Reece Brown, the youth player (Wes Brown's brother), had exactly the same injury as John and all of a sudden, he’s fit," said the manager.
"It looked as though Reece was going to be out for quite a while. He got the injury in October but he’s fit now.
"John will not be back quickly but hopefully we’ll get some of the season from him."
In his earlier quotes, the boss had described the problem in detail, and bemoaned the loss of O'Shea's versatility.
"The problem is that the blood clot became all knotted and when that happens, you get calcification. It takes a long time to clear that up. It's a bad blow for the boy and for the team because he can play anywhere," Sir Alex told the Irish Independent.
"When you look at all the problems I've had with the back four this season, he could have played in every single position." -
can he do the placenta thingy to get better???