Kagawa Ready To Return and Sir Alex’s Jibe At Newcastle
Welbeck and Young both missed the Boxing Day win over Newcastle, whilst Kagawa has been out since October. After a good showing against Newcastle, Giggs may miss the Baggies visit and there are doubts over Jones and Scholes whilst Rooney remains out:
“I can’t give you an update on the injuries as it’s only two days on from Wednesday and there were issues with a soft, tiring pitch. We need to assess players like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs as I think, at their age, it took a lot out of them.
“We’re hoping maybe Young will be ready and Daniel Welbeck should be ready. He was ill on Tuesday night but I think he should be okay. At least that’s a couple of bodies back fresh for us. We’ll just assess the rest in terms of tiredness.
“All the players are key now as we’re picking up one or two injuries. Rooney is out for at least another two games. He was a bit better yesterday. We’re going to assess Phil Jones but I don’t think he’ll be ready.”
In regards to Kagawa, Sir Alex added:
“Shinji wanted to do a warm-up and training on the pitch and he is getting close. I’ll see what he’s like today and I could maybe put him on the bench tomorrow depending on who is available.
“The most important thing is to assess the tiredness and also the fitness of one or two others.”
There was also time for Sir Alex to comment on the Newcastle game after Alan Pardew criticised him for his ‘clash’ with Mike Dean:
“Alan Pardew has come out and criticised me.
“He is the worst at haranguing referees. He shoves them and makes a joke of it. How he can criticise me is unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way.
“I was demonstrative but I was not out of order. The press have had a field day. The only person they have not spoken to is Barack Obama because he is busy. It is unfortunate but I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. Not Newcastle, a wee club in the north east.”