Manchester United Injury Update: Neville, Saha, Solksjaer, Fletcher, Silvestre
Manchester United are 6 points clear with 8 games to go and some pessimists are worried that our league form and injuries mean that we still might fall over and gift the Premiership to Chelsea.
With such concerns in mind, and the fact that the Premiership is restarting today, let’s look at Manchester United’s injury list and how that shapes up for us.
Gary Neville – He’s expected to be out for another 3 weeks – by that time Manchester United may be out of Europe and the FA Cup, so it’s a key period for us to lose him.
Having said that, Wes Brown is a good right-back and he should easily fill in till the end of April. Depending on how the season is going Ferguson may not play Neville till May, considering that the captain could reinjure his ankle if he was rushed back and then sit out the summer like a twat.
Mikael Silvestre – Broken shoulder, out for the season. Would have been handy to rotate through the upcoming glut of fixtures, but as long as Manchester United can avoid injury to Rio and Vidic we should be fine.
Louis Saha – Out with a hamstring injury, but back in training and expected to be back in early April. His return for the Champions League Roma clash is eagerly expected but bringing him back so soon could be a problem considering his injury-riddled history for Manchester United.
We need him fit for the league run-in and he should be back soon – hopefully.
Darren Fletcher – Back in training after his ankle injury. Manchester United will need him in midfield to rotate with Scholes and Carrick, but without him we have O’Shea, Park, Richardson and Giggs to play center.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – Reportedly fit and should be part of the Manchester United squad that faces Blackburn today.
Edwin van der Sar – Fit and back in action today.
The upside is that we’re doing better than Arsenal (Henry, Walcott, Persie – all 3 out for the season and Silva and Aliadiere injured as well), but they have no FA Cup or CL or the league to play for.
Chelsea have most of their squad back – Robben is out for the season, Bridge is out for a few more weeks, Essien is reportedly fit but might not play today and Joe Cole is reported to be nearing a return.
So the big question is – do we need to be worried?
Topics: Manchester United
Football News 24/7
Yes, man united should be worried.
Chelsea are in great form and united have looked shaky in the past few games (except Bolton).
March 31st, 2007 @ 13:33I don’t see much danger for ManU unless ManU loses/draws one of the next 2 games. 2 more wins and your 6 points lead (assuming Chelsea win over Tottenham at SB) will start looking enough – right now it still doesn’t look enough. All ManU fans when worry, perhaps “assume” Chelsea is going to win all 8 of their remaining games anyway :p Well thank you for thinking like that but realistically…. EPL is pretty much ManUs now. I’d say 90% ManU, 10% Chelsea. Chelsea is YET to face Arsenal at Emirates, and host ManU at home. So unless ManU starts screwing up completely, you guys shouldn’t be worried!
What say Ahmed?
March 31st, 2007 @ 15:38I’m doing season run-in previews for the top four soon, so will have a more factual analysis to back up my statements..
but as far as my gut feeling is concerned, I’m a tad bit worried about United dropping a couple of points, if I remember correctly Hasan had this theory of United having only 10 points to drop at the start of the year (or maybe from before that) and we havent filled that quota yet.
Expecting the opposition to lose their games isn’t good enough, although I’d take the Prem by 1 goal’s difference
March 31st, 2007 @ 15:46Blackburn was playing such negative and scrappy football ….. I’m actually glad :p ManU screwed them …..
March 31st, 2007 @ 20:56Vidic injured, broken collarbone, out for the rest of the season.
Azar – I think Blackburn played well in the first half, they played to their strengths and you can’t fault them for that, just as you cannot fault United for being so bloody good
March 31st, 2007 @ 21:37Now we’re in trouble. We have four of our eight defenders injured, three of them first choice ones.
The Treble is impossible. An early exit from the champions league could be a blessing in disguise for us.
April 1st, 2007 @ 00:08Gary, Silvestre, Vidic….that’s 3.
Evra as well? No, I don’t think Evra is injured, he just wasn’t picked today.
April 1st, 2007 @ 00:24When Vidic got injured,the overconfidence i had for man-u to take the title somehow bubbled out, i think for the next three or four games we are on the tenterhooks.
April 7th, 2007 @ 15:09