Manchester United will assess an injury to Rio Ferdinand before
commenting on its severity, but Sir Alex Ferguson has his fingers
crossed it is not a serious problem for the defender.
Ferdinand was withdrawn with 20 minutes remaining of United’s
2-2 draw with Middlesbrough at The Riverside and the sight of him
limping off the pitch was not a pleasant one for the league
leaders.
His defensive partner Nemanja Vidic has already been ruled out
for around a fortnight and Ferguson is praying Ferdinand does not
join him at such a crucial juncture of the season.
”We got a few bumps and bruises, but we'll assess things on
Monday,” Ferguson told MUTV.
“Hopefully Rio's injury is not serious. He was limping for quite
a while and the danger with carrying on with him was we weren't
going to get a full performance level from him.”
The draw leaves United just three points ahead of Chelsea and
Ferguson’s men must still visit Stamford Bridge as well as
welcoming Arsenal to Old Trafford next weekend.
Afonso Alves was Ferguson’s tormentor on Sunday when scoring
twice and the Scot admitted the scoreline could have been worse for
his side.
"We could have lost the game there's no question - they had some
chances," Ferguson added. "At times the defending was a bit
haphazard I thought.
"But in other ways we could have won the game because some of
the approach and football was very good. At 1-0 we looked very
strong.
"They changed after starting off with two wide players and one
forward and that obviously made it harder to beat them.
"We controlled the game and Wayne Rooney was unluckily given
offside when he clearly wasn't.
"They changed their formation back to a 4-4-2, got an equaliser,
and it was a great game of football after that."
