Rojo Determined To Regain Full Fitness

Marcos Rojo feared he had suffered a fresh injury setback during his return to action against Arsenal last weekend, but thankfully the Manchester United defender emerged unscathed and now hopes to accelerate his rehabilitation throughout the remainder of this season.

After missing three months of action while recovering from a dislocated shoulder, Rojo made his comeback in the 5-1 win against FC Midtjylland and then started the 3-2 success over Arsenal. The Argentina international was forced off after 55 minutes of the latter match, however, following a challenge with former Reds striker Danny Welbeck.

Scans later showed Rojo had not suffered another significant problem against the Gunners and the versatile defender was declared fit to face Watford in midweek, although he admits he was worried for a moment.

“When it happened I was concerned that it could be a more serious injury than it turned out to be, but I thought it would be better to come off at that point to be replaced by a player who was at full fitness and save aggravating the injury,” Rojo told MUTV, ahead of Sunday's trip to West Brom. “Thankfully it turned out just to be a knock, but it was safer for me to come off as the team come first.

“[Despite coming off] I feel that the Arsenal game did me a lot of good and I got my rhythm back. After three months out with injury it wasn’t easy to come back and it’s not something that should be rushed. It has to be done match-by-match. My goal is obviously to achieve full fitness again and play a full 90 minutes.”

Matteo Darmian dislocated his shoulder in the recent defeat at Sunderland and Rojo has sympathy for the Italian, having suffered a similar blow. “When I was at home and watching the games on TV I saw Matteo taking a shoulder injury and felt really bad for him of course.

“At the time I was asking him how he was and how he was progressing. Thankfully it didn’t turn out to be as serious as mine so it wasn’t quite as a long a recovery process. He would ask me about how I went about my recovery procedure and what I had to do – I’m sure it won’t be long until he is back.”

Rojo now hopes to retain his starting place against West Brom at The Hawthorns and the World Cup finalist expects a difficult game on Sunday. He is also looking forward to seeing his former team-mates Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans, who obviously know a lot about United’s approach.

“We shared a dressing room with these two guys and they are both really good people,” Rojo told us ahead of kick-off. “They are two great players who, it’s worth noting, will know a lot about us and I’m sure they’ll be telling their manager all about us.

“Certainly it will be a tough match, there is no question,” Rojo continued. “They’ve got players and a manager who are very experienced and it has been discussed here this week as to how we will approach this tough test. We’re ready to take the fight to them and it’s important for us to engage West Brom which is part of our plan to continue on an upward trend and finish in the top four.”