Rio Ferdinand could miss the rest of the season

zocoss SG

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that injury-plagued defender Rio Ferdinand could miss the rest of the season because of an ongoing calf problem.

Ferdinand, 32, has been struggling with a back complaint throughout the campaign, but a calf injury picked up in the warm-up prior to the loss at Wolves in early February has meant he has been unable to help United in their quest for the Treble.

"Rio has been out for a few weeks now,'' said Ferguson. "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.''

The loss of such an experienced player will come as a huge blow to United as they battle on in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup with a seriously depleted rearguard.

Versatile defender John O'Shea has been ruled out for five weeks with the hamstring injury he picked up against Marseille in midweek and full-back Rafael is out for at least two weeks with a similar injury.

Skipper Nemanja Vidic will miss this weekend's Premier League match at home to Bolton with a calf injury, but Ferguson hopes centre-back Jonny Evans will be fit after resuming training this week.

"Vidic won't make it,'' confirmed Ferguson. "He is showing good recovery for this week and should be OK after the international break but not enough for Saturday.''

He added: "It has been a bad spell for us. Only a few weeks ago we had every defender fit and things were looking great. It has all just fallen apart in the last week or so.

"Hopefully Jonny Evans may be fit for Saturday, even if it is a bit of a risk. He has trained all week but he has been out for such a long time.''

Ferdinand has struggled with a series of injury problems in recent seasons and lost the United captaincy to Nemanja Vidic at the start of the season due to his ongoing fitness issues.

The England centre-back's absences have also had a costly effect at international level. After being handed the armband by manager Fabio Capello it now appears he may have to give it back to John Terry on a long-term basis.

Rooney9 SG

I have noticed he is usually out from March and April period, since 2007. He is already 32 and it will get worse for him for next season and the seasons thereafter. I think fergie better get a solid centreback to replace rio permanently.

iceFatboy SG

fergie did, he bought smalling. the plan was to partner smalling with evans, the new centrebacks, but evans had had a confidence crisis, and now, this plan is waywired.