I would like to think I am wrong but more and more I am beginning to think that we are going to have to get used to life without Rio Ferdinand sooner rather than later.
For a player rarely troubled by injury throughout his career, it appears someone has decided to play a cruel joke on him in the latter part of it as the injuries have piled up. If it was a load of small injuries it would be easier to accept but it isn’t, rather these are big injuries that are seeing him miss long periods of his career.
Last season Rio missed the first few games of the season with a thigh strain and didn’t play a game until September against Spurs. He managed to stay relatively free of injury until the end of October when it was discovered that a calf injury that had been troubling him was linked to a long standing lower back problem. We wouldn’t see Rio again until January.
A groin injury amongst other things would then see him out for 2 weeks in the later half of the season and just this summer he missed the World Cup with a knee ligament injury. It was initially thought that the knee injury would clear up after 4-6 weeks but in late July it was stated he would be out for another 6 weeks thus missing the start of the season.
Yesterday quotes were attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson saying:
“He’s nowhere near fitness.”
There’s a quite noticeable difference between being 6 weeks away from a return and being nowhere near fitness. Sir Alex would add,
“It was a knee ligament injury and it was a bad one. It’s going to take time. There was no detachment or rupture of the ligament which was a blessing.”
At Rio’s age the injuries do take longer to recover from. He isn’t the first United player to go through this sort of thing, most recently Gary Neville was in a similar position and after a few false dawns he managed to return although he himself is still liable to pick up the odd injury here and there.
Although we have cover in the form of Evans, Smalling and possibly Brown there is no defender quite like a fully fit Rio Ferdinand and I feel he will be a loss as long as he is injured. Even when he does come back will he ever be 100%? Sir Alex said the injuries haven’t affected him mentally which is great but it must linger in his thoughts that he could throw his back out or tweak his groin at any moment?
At 31 Rio is by no means done at the top level of the game, even when carrying knocks he was still able to perform at a higher standard than most yet it was against the top level players and players with pace he struggled. Which was an eye opener as Rio is no slouch himself and is noted for his recovery abilities.
Whereas before due to playing to his strengths I felt he would be able to play on well into his 30s, injury perhaps means we may see the back of one of the club’s finest defenders in recent memory sooner than expected.
rio is one of the best defenders in the world we dont realise how important he is the only chance of winning the league this year is to have vidic and rio fit.
This will be a huge moment for Evans and Smalling. Evans will feature in every important match for the next couple months and Smalling will certainly be in against a few of the lower teams and other cup competitions. Moreover, I think Evans having a long stretch of starts will really boost his game, along with developing a stronger partnership with Vidic. This will be even more important if Rio never fully returns to his former self.