United have so many knocks, scrapes and absentee’s they deserve an injury round-up all of their own. Their decisive victory over Wigan at the weekend saw them pick up further defensive knocks to both O’Shea and Vidic to add to their injury list that already includes Saha, Neville, Hargreaves, Carrick, Fletcher , Brown and Van der Sar. Here’s a round-up of the current state of play down in the Old Trafford physio room.
Vidic suffered a clash of heads and reluctantly left the field of play after 20 minutes to be replaced by Danny Simpson. Vidic has since withdrawn from the Serbian squad today for their International games and is said to require at least 5 days before he can be involved in training and another 10 days rest. That appears to cast doubt over his chances to be involved against Villa after the International break.
O’Shea suffered a dead leg against Wigan and is said to be sidelined for a fortnight. He replaced Wes Brown at right-back on Saturday after he failed to make it with a knee injury. Both O’Shea and Brown should be available for the trip to Villa.
To add further confusion to the right-back spot, Gary Neville is set to step up his recovery from injury this week when he lines up for the reserves against Liverpool on Thursday. A return against Villa looks unlikely but the game against Boro or in the Champions League against Dynamo Kiev on October 23, could be on the cards.
Van der Sar suffered a toe injury, a reaccurance of a knock picked up whilst training with the Dutch, against Birmingham the weekend before last. He is expected to return after the International’s according to Ferguson.
Darren Fletcher has returned to full training and could be back in contention for Boro game. Owen Hargreaves is apparently still 2-3 weeks away from being in contention.
Louis Saha was due to start the game on the bench against Wigan but broke down in the warm-up with a knee injury. There’s no confirmation on when the glass-limbed striker will be back but with Tevez beginning to find the net, that’s not a major concern for United or Fantasy Managers right now.