Soccer

Injury problems mount for Ferguson

Soccer: Manchester United defenders John O’Shea and Jonny Evans have both been ruled out of action until January

Mon Dec 07 2009 - 00:00

Soccer:Manchester United defenders John O'Shea and Jonny Evans have both been ruled out of action until January. O'Shea's problem was not specified by the club while Evans has been struggling with a calf injury.

It is more bad news on the defensive front for manager Alex Ferguson, who ended Saturday’s 4-0 win at West Ham with Michael Carrick and Patrice Evra in the centre of defence, Ryan Giggs at left-back and Darren Fletcher at right-back.

Nemanja Vidic has already been ruled out of United's Champions League trip to Wolfsburg, leaving Ferguson with plenty of problems as his team attempt to secure top spot in Group B.

United had hoped Vidic would have recovered from the flu bug that kept him out of Saturday's win at West Ham.

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However, the Serbian was absent as the Red Devils checked in for the short flight to Germany, giving their manager a major headache.

His list of injured defenders now includes skipper Gary Neville and England international Wes Brown, who both limped off at Upton Park, plus longer-term casualties Rio Ferdinand, O'Shea and Evans. With the Da Silva brothers, Fabio and Rafael, also sidelined, the only orthodox defender Ferguson has in his squad is left-back Patrice Evra.

In addition to the defensive problems - first-choice keeper Edwin Van der Sar is also missing - Ferguson has taken the option of leaving Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov at home, meaning Michael Owen and Danny Welbeck are the only strikers in his 19-man squad.

Given Wolfsburg are unbeaten at home in this season's competition, it would appear United's best hope of finishing top would be for CSKA Moscow to beat Besiktas in Istanbul, which would leave the Red Devils at the head of affairs no matter what their result.

At least it should mean Paul Scholes should retain his place for a game the former England star feels will round off what has been a harder group than seemed likely when the draw was made.

"This was one of the toughest groups," he said. "We had to go to Moscow, which is always difficult, especially on a plastic pitch, and it is the same in Turkey, yet we managed to win both games.

"CSKA and Besiktas went on to prove at Old Trafford that they are very capable teams and, when you take into account Wolfsburg are the German champions, we did well to qualify as early as we did."

He continued: "We want to win the game and finish top of the group. How much difference that makes to who we get in the next round, I am not too sure. There are lots of good teams at that stage of the tournament."