Ferdinand injured at the Riverside

| Tuesday April 8, 2008 00:00

The Manchester United central defender and current England captain sustained the injury, which will almost certainly rule him out of tomorrow's Champions League game at home to Roma, during a thrilling 2-2 draw against Middlesbrough. The result against opposition still not mathematically safe from relegation was an unscheduled stumble for Sir Alex Ferguson's side and cuts their lead at the top of the Premier League to three points. United's visit to Stamford Bridge on April 26 has assumed the feel of a potential title decider and it was telling that Ferguson afterwards displayed a rare touch of insecurity, reflecting: 'Our goal difference is good.'

His side were not expected to need to rely on goal difference to recapture the championship but the injury that has put Nemanja Vidic out for around three weeks is suddenly emphasising just how important the Serbian centre half is to their cause. Ferguson described United's defending without him as 'haphazard'.

In his absence, Gareth Southgate's attack frequently ran Ferdinand, Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Patrice Evra ragged and Ferdinand's second-half injury saw Ferguson forced to send the inexperienced Gerard Piqu on in his stead after allowing the limping England defender to spend 15 minutes trying to run the problem off. Ferdinand seemed to injure himself trying to block the second of two goals from Afonso Alves, Boro's record 12m signing who had not previously scored for the club since arriving from Heerenveen of the Netherlands in January.

'Hopefully it's not too serious with Rio,' said Ferguson as Ferdinand's foot was strapped and booted ahead of scans yesterday morning. 'He was limping too long though and the danger is that, if we'd left him on, things could have been worse.' United sources later said Ferdinand had 'no chance' of facing Roma - against whom Ferguson's side have a 2-0 first-leg lead - and is doubtful for Sunday when Arsenal visit Old Trafford.

Perhaps the impending absence of both his key centre-halves partly explained why United's manager appeared bad-tempered in the second half and indulged in some finger jabbing and shouting at Southgate at the end.

It appeared that Ferguson was upset with Wayne Rooney being flagged offside incorrectly when the forward was clean through and with a perceived trip on Cristiano Ronaldo by Gary O'Neil inside the penalty area. Southgate seemed aggrieved by time-wasting and a possible foul in the build-up to Rooney's equaliser, which levelled the scores at 2-2.

Ferguson may regret once publicly opining that Southgate should have not been allowed to take the Middlesbrough job but shortly after the final whistle he had turned magnanimous, declaring: 'It was a fantastic game' and admitting: 'We could have lost.' But such honesty was, typically, laced with defiance.  Reflecting on Rooney's equaliser at the end of an afternoon that had begun smoothly with Ronaldo claiming his 37th club goal of the season, Ferguson said: 'It sends out a signal to other players and our fans that we never give up.

It was a fantastic game of football and both teams deserve great credit. Boro always seem to raise their game against us.'
(The Guardian)