United to give their best

Alex Ferguson will be going all out for victory in the World Club Championship in Brazil despite his concerns over the tournament…

Alex Ferguson will be going all out for victory in the World Club Championship in Brazil despite his concerns over the tournament.

The Manchester United boss has repeatedly voiced his fears over what effects playing in the heat and humidity of Rio de Janeiro will have on his stars.

United fly to South America on Sunday and Ferguson knows their Premiership title rivals can steal a march on them while they are away for two weeks.

Ferguson, though, will put these worries to one side when he arrives in Brazil and he insists they will not hold back. "We all have fears going into a tournament like this because we don't really know what it's like to play in the heat like this particularly with four games in 10 days," he said.

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"I don't know exactly if it's going to be something we're going to relish.

"But we're not going to let that be a point which will send us to distraction. We're going to go and do our best. We're going to give it a shot and we hope we can win.

"I think we've got enough quality and - as you saw against Sunderland - we've got the character.

"I'm taking 23 players with me because it's not as if you can get them hopping on a plane at a minute's notice to come over so we need to protect ourselves from all eventualities.

"I'll change the team round game by game and I'll make my three substitutions every game. Hopefully that way they can handle it - I just hope we can keep away from those dreaded injuries."

Ferguson believes a bit of sun will do his players no harm at his stage of their gruelling season. He will not be telling his players to top up their tans on the famous Copacabana or Ipanema beaches, but he does feel the change of climate will do them good.

Ferguson intends to take his strongest squad and his main injury doubt is Paul Scholes. The England midfielder missed the 22 draw at Sunderland because he suffered a recurrence of his longstanding hernia problem against Bradford on St Stephen's Day and Ferguson will assess his fitness on Friday.

"I don't know if he will be right," said Ferguson. "