Manchester United are becoming deeply concerned about Rio Ferdinand’s persistent injury problems, fears shared by England before the World Cup finals next summer.
The centre back has missed 30 of the past 52 matches involving United and England as nagging injuries take their toll on his body. Since April, he has started back-to-back competitive games on only two occasions.
He was an unused substitute last night as United overcame Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 in a third-round Carling Cup tie despite having been reduced to ten men by the first-half dismissal of Fábio Da Silva for a professional foul.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, hinted at their mounting concerns last week when he said that Ferdinand has “one game back and picks up another injury when he really needs games”. The club are increasingly worried that the problems appear to be more frequent and pronounced as the player gets older.
Ferdinand, who turns 31 in November, has been hindered by a succession of calf, thigh and groin injuries over the past nine months, although they appear to be principally an offshoot of a back complaint that requires something close to micro-management.
The issue came to the fore during the Club World Cup in Japan last December, when Ferdinand suffered spasms in his lower back that ruled him out for more than five weeks, and he has rarely been pain-free since.
Ferdinand sees an osteopath three times a week and had a special fitness programme drawn up by United, which often involves him completing a full gym session by 9 o’clock most mornings.
In an interview with The Times in April, Ferdinand conceded that the back injury, in particular, was a growing worry, but said that he was prepared to be saddled with a limp in later life if it meant playing at the highest level for several more years.
“I’m a little bit concerned it might become more of a problem as I get older, but I don’t really like to think about it like that,” he said at the time. “I’m quite good at blocking pain out.”
Ferdinand’s importance to United was underlined by their decision to play him in the derby against Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday, even though he was clearly unfit after missing five of the club’s opening seven games with a thigh injury.
United’s concerns are exacerbated by their other first-choice central defender, Nemanja Vidic, having to contend with a number of injuries in the past couple of seasons, while Jonny Evans has had an ankle problem since December and Wes Brown was missing for long periods last season and, more recently, has been sidelined by a thigh complaint.
Ferdinand has missed 23 of United’s past 43 games in all competitions, only one of which he was rested for. He has rarely been absent for long periods, but United’s concern centres on the Ferdinand-Vidic axis, the foundation for success over the past three seasons, being routinely broken up by niggling issues. Similarly, Fabio Capello is anxious about the disruption being caused to his first-choice defensive pairing of Ferdinand and John Terry with the World Cup finals in South Africa less than nine months away.
Ferdinand and Terry, the Chelsea defender, have partnered each other in only two of England’s past nine games, forcing Capello to experiment in the one area of his team that the manager hoped to leave untouched.
Ferguson hopes to have Edwin van der Sar, the goalkeeper, available for the league game at home to Sunderland on Saturday week. The Dutchman has been sidelined since the beginning of last month with a broken finger and bone in his left hand.
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