Reds' Injury Concerns Persist

Manchester United's injury concerns are not expected to ease before the Reds meet Fulham at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are all currently sidelined, with Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson admitting it could be "a couple of weeks" before his defence takes on a more familiar composition.

At Goodison Park on Monday night, Sir Alex Ferguson was forced to field Michael Carrick alongside Nemanja Vidic in the heart of the back four and Antonio Valencia on the right.

The same players could well be asked to perform similar jobs this weekend against a Fulham side that smashed five past Norwich City in their opening 2012/13 fixture.

"I don’t think any of them [Ferdinand, Evans, Smalling, Jones] will be fit for Saturday," Sir Alex told MUTV. "Hopefully Jonny Evans is getting near. Obvoiusly we’ve got a good week’s training now and that will bring him on a good bit.

"Hopefully in a couple of weeks we should be okay.

"Michael Carrick’s not used to playing as a centre-back but he did all right, he did fine. He applied himself well tonight - they all did."