When it comes to defensive crisis nobody knows how to do it like United!
With both Rafael and John O’Shea going off on Tuesday with hamstring injuries and Nemanja Vidic picking up a knock prior to the Marseille game news that Rio Ferdinand could miss the rest of the season with a calf injury is a massive blow.
Sir Alex spoke on the defender today stating:
“Rio has been out for a few weeks now.
“We are not looking at this as a short-term situation.
“He has not started training yet. We will be lucky to get him back for some part of the season.”
Add to this that Sir Alex says that John O’Shea could be out for 5 weeks and memories of last year and the defensive crisis we faced that saw both Fletcher and Carrick playing at the back spring to mind. One positive is Jonny Evans, who has missed the last 8 games with injury, could be ready for the game against Bolton on Saturday.
we need to sign a defender in the summer because we cant keep ferdinard.its time to face the fact that this guy is no more.
We shouldn’t write Ferdinand off but his injuries are becoming a real concern, he’s still one of the best around and an important player for us. However he’s approaching 33 and the injuries are starting to have an impact on his game, we saw how it affected Neville so you have to worry how it will affect him. Smalling has been great in his absence but i’m worried if we were to lose Vidic for any period as well. Brown hasn’t played much and you get the feeling there’s a mistake in him waiting to happen,much like Evans who hasn’t had a great season either.
Just hoping Evans get his act back together. We need all the help we can get in the run-in.
It looks increasingly evident that the club will have to by another central defender this summer. It’s far to unrealistic to hope that Rio will be available for most games given his history that last couple years and that his rehab period is much longer than most.
We made the mistake of planning on Hargo’s return last summer when most evidence was pointing another direction. It won’t hurt to keep him even if we bring in another CB, given that position’s high injury rate. If the pattern tells us anything, he’ll likely only be fit for 20 games per season anyways.