Sidelined: Rio Ferdinand hasn't played since
damaging his knee while on duty with England at the World
Cup
Rio Ferdinand will miss the first month of the season
after Manchester
United last night ruled the defender
out for another six weeks.
It was hoped the England captain might have recovered from the
knee ligament injury he suffered in training for the World Cup in
time to make the start of the new Premier League season.
But speaking ahead of the third game of United’s tour of North
America against Kansas City Wizards in the early hours of tomorrow
morning, Sir Alex Ferguson revealed Ferdinand still faces a lengthy
lay-off.
‘Rio should be six weeks maybe,’ said Ferguson. ‘It’s a knee
ligament injury and you’ve got to be careful about that.’
Ferdinand’s latest setback has made it all the more important
that United were able to end speculation over the future of Nemanja
Vidic, who has agreed to sign a new four-year deal worth
£90,000-a-week.
Ferguson added: ‘We didn’t know it was going to be an issue
until Rio got injured but it really strengthens our hand. It’s not
easy renewing players’ contracts when they do well, particularly
from other countries.
‘There has been speculation about Nemanja time and time again
but we never had a strong feeling he really wanted to leave.
‘At the end of the day we managed to achieve the target of a
four-year contract. We’re delighted. He’s a fantastic centre-half
and a great competitor.
‘The negotiations were maybe prolonged a bit, but we started
preparing some months ago by signing Chris Smalling.
‘It was important to stock up defensively.’
Ferguson also said that Michael Owen is unlikely to be fit for
the start of the season but Javier Hernandez is expected to play in
Wednesday’s game against the MLS All-Stars in Houston following the
striker’s £7million move from Chivas.