FERDINAND HID INJURY FROM FERGIE
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Manchester United defender Jonny Evans has pulled out of Northern Ireland's friendly against Albania on Wednesday night.
Evans was returning home on Tuesday after taking a knock on his knee during the Carling Cup victory over Aston Villa on Sunday at Wembley.
The decision was taken when he was re-assessed this morning by the Northern Ireland medical staff after missing training on Monday.
However, there was no improvement overnight and Evans will continue treatment at his club.
Manager Nigel Worthington has called up Evans' brother Corry, who is also a Manchester United player.
The 19-year-old is currently in San Marino with the Under-21 squad for a UEFA championship qualifier on Tuesday and will join up with the senior squad on Wednesday.
Worthington is short of defenders as Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird have been rested, Gareth McAuley is injured and Shane Duffy has opted to play for the Republic of Ireland.
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Wayne Rooney scored three of United’s seven goals, but Sir Alex says the man most responsible for crippling AC Milan over two legs was Ji-sung Park.
In both matches, Park was tasked with man-marking playmaker Andrea Pirlo, a job the South Korean carried out to perfection. With no time or space on the ball, Pirlo was unable to pull the strings and feed Milan’s forwards with the ball.
“Park was the key to our game,” Sir Alex told MUTV. “We can talk about Rooney – and he was great – but Park’s discipline, intelligence and sacrifice won us the match tactically. Pirlo is such an important player for them.”
Club captain Gary Neville, who was barely troubled by Brazilian star Ronaldinho, also acknowledged the role Park played in Wednesday night’s win.
“I don’t know if it was easy out there [against Ronaldinho], but you have to look at the work Ji-sung Park did, stopping the forwards getting the service. A player like Ronaldinho is difficult to mark if he gets good service but I was able to get close to him.”
Neville said the 7-2 aggregate win over Milan was “a great scoreline” but urged caution as United move into the Champions League quarter-finals.
“That result gives us confidence,” he said. “We’ve done well in the European Cup in the last two seasons and now we’re in the quarter-finals again. But we know in this competition that anything can happen.
“There are a lot of good teams left in the competition. Hopefully the draw [made on Friday 19 March] will be kind to us.” -
Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted there was a sense of panic at Manchester United when Rio Ferdinand suffered his most recent back scare.
After spending three months on the sidelines with a similar problem that had plagued him for a year before that, it is little wonder Ferdinand was anxious.
He was immediately disregarded for the Carling Cup final, plus England's friendly against Egypt the following week, when he was supposed to be taking over from John Terry as captain.
Thankfully the problem proved to be short term and Ferdinand returned for last Saturday's victory at Wolves before producing a fine display alongside Nemanja Vidic in the midweek Champions League defeat of AC Milan.
"It was only a twinge, but Rio panicked a little bit, as we all did," Ferguson said.
"It felt like a case of "Here we go again," but he is fine and looking good.
"He is training well. He has never missed many training sessions since he came back. Hopefully it will continue like that."
Ferguson certainly feels at ease knowing Ferdinand and Vidic are back at the heart of his defence, given the Serbian was also sidelined for an extended period by a nerve complaint in his leg.
"When I see the two of them together there is a sense of security that we have been fighting all season for," Ferguson added.
"They have got the experience, authority and understanding with each other.
"Coupled with Edwin van der Sar coming back from a long-term injury, it makes an unbelievable difference.
"Any threat to us seemed to be stuffed out very early.
"That is an indication of the authority they bring to the team. I pray to the Lord they stay fit until the end of the season."
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Rio Ferdinand has played only 13 times for United this season because of a back problem. Photograph: Neal Simpson/Empics
Rio Ferdinand has spoken of his hope that he is over the worst of his long‑standing back issues, the Manchester United defender "staying positive" about his chances of being injury-free in this summer's World Cup. Ferdinand is encouraged by playing successive games for the third time this season, resuming a partnership with Nemanja Vidic that Sir Alex Ferguson identified today as a key element to the club's aspirations of defending the Premier League title.
When Ferdinand takes his place in United's back four against Fulham on Sunday it will be the first time since October he has played three matches in a row. The new England captain was out for three months and Ferguson described him as having "panicked" when the problem flared up again recently. However, Ferdinand is encouraged by the way he coped with Milan's forward line in the 4-0 win at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
"It is still taking time," the defender said. "The more games you get the better you feel, and I would put myself in that category. But I don't think negatively about it. I just think about staying positive and staying fit, being on the pitch. That is what I aim to do."
Troubled by the injury for 18 months, Ferdinand has played 13 times for United this season and specialists have warned him the problem could recur at any time, but he has minimised the risk with an individually tailored fitness programme. "It is what I expected. Once you get to 30 you have to adapt your training anyway," he said.
The Ferdinand-Vidic axis has been the bedrock for much of United's success over the past few seasons, and the resumption of that partnership has helped the team to keep successive clean sheets against Milan and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"They haven't played a lot of games this season and to have them back at this stage is fantastic for us," Ferguson said. "Rio's training well now. He missed a couple of games and panicked a little bit, as we all did. We were all thinking 'here we go again', but he's fine and looking good. He and Vidic were brilliant on Wednesday and it gives us a big chance. I see the two of them together and there's a sense of security with their experience, their authority, that understanding with each other. It's great to see."
Ferguson is also encouraged by the latest diagnosis on Ryan Giggs, who is expected to be back from his broken arm when Liverpool visit Old Trafford next Sunday while Owen Hargreaves is scheduled to play in a reserve game against Burnley on Thursday after 19 months out. Hargreaves pulled out of a reserve fixture this week and has seen another knee specialist. "He's training again," Ferguson said. "He'll play in the next game, he has to because he's ready to play."
United equalled the heaviest defeat inflicted on Milan in the history of the Champions League and Ferguson was so impressed by the performances of Paul Scholes and Gary Neville on Wednesday he indicated they could both follow Giggs and Edwin Van der Sar by signing one-year contract extensions.
Scholes has already been told a new deal is waiting to be signed and Ferguson said: "I expect Scholesey to stay although I haven't spoken to him about it yet."
Neville, like Scholes, is 35 and out of contract at the end of the season. "He's a player of will and he's got where he has in life because he's got the will to do it," Ferguson said. "We don't bring him in every week, because we know the nature of his body, but on Wednesday he was outstanding. His drive - every time the ball went forward, Gary was up in support of the game. He's a good example and I can see him playing next season."
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Rio Ferdinand is confident he has got to the bottom of his recent injury problems.
The England captain has been dogged by back problems in recent weeks and at one point it was even suggested his World Cup dreams could be in doubt.
But the Manchester United star now insists that he has pinpointed the issue and it should not be a problem again.
"Hopefully I've now got my finger on the pulse," he told the Mail on Sunday.
"I am confident, I'm doing a lot of training in the rehab room and I do loads of stuff to prevent anything else happening.
"I'm feeling very good. It's just nice to be playing again.
"I am now playing two games in a week, yet in the last couple of months I've not been able to imagine playing once so it's good to be in this position."
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England captain Rio Ferdinand has revealed he hid the extent of his back problem from Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, which left him "bent over like an old hunchback" and struggling to walk.
Ferdinand is now back in the Red Devils line-up and seemingly through the worst of the injury after pioneering treatment, but he admits it took him a long time to come clean to the club about just how bad the problem was.
The turning point was the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in October, when Fernando Torres got away from him easily to fire the Reds in front at Anfield.
Ferdinand told the News of the World: "The day after a game I would waddle into the club like a duck, bent over like an old hunchback.
"I would be hobbling around, unable to train for four or five days. I would be OK to play the next game, but I must have missed 60-70% of training.
"If I'm honest, I didn't make it clear to the gaffer and the club physios that my injury was that serious.
"I just had an incredible desire to play football and had never had to deal with an injury of this scale before.
"But I was summoned into the manager's office after the Liverpool defeat.
"He told me: 'Last season, Torres would not have scored that goal against you'. As soon as he said that, you sit up and take notice.
"When the manager tells you something like that it hits home. So we made a decision to rest it completely before I could return to the team."
Ferdinand received a course of spinal injections to tackle the problem and has been given an orthopaedic cushion to aid his posture when sitting.
"I'm training at full pelt now," he added.
"Now I just need a run of games to get match-fit.
"I'm still using the cushion, it helps my posture. I look daft when I'm sat on it in a restaurant - it makes me look really tall. But it has certainly helped."