Rio ready to return and not a moment too soon
Rio suffered knee ligament damage while training with England in South Africa before the competition began, and has been out ever since. Though he’s been very active on Twitter, we’d not heard much from, or about his injury until recently, when Sir Alex declared him unfit until the end of September/beginning of October.
But Rio played 45 minutes last night for the reserves, and looked assured on the ball, and quality in tackles. But I think Solskjaer’s post-match interview surprised everyone.
“Rio is always the same player,” said Solskjaer. “It is a while since he has played but he was still calm.
“He has got through an important 45 minutes, straight after two very hard training sessions yesterday and the day before so we are delighted with him.”
Solskjaer was quick to reject any concerns that Rio’s failure to play the entire game was down to a recurrence of the injury.
“There was no problem whatsoever,” he added.
“It was always planned that he would play 45 minutes. I am not sure he needs any more games. Rio is a naturally fit lad.
“Today was about distances and getting tighter to the ball. Now he is available for selection again.”
So with our next game being against Everton at Goodison, after the international break. It will be interesting to see if Fergie decides to risk him in a match that could prove a tricky one since the fixture last season ended in a 3-1 trouncing. But just a few days later, we play rangers in our Champions League opener at Old Trafford (before welcoming Liverpool the following weekend), a possibly perfect match to make his return alongside Vida, since I’m sure Fergie would be reluctant to let him make his return in a game such as the Liverpool one.