Rio Ferdinand nears Manchester United return
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is close to making a return to playing with the English Premier League giant.
The centre-back has been out of action since suffering a knee ligament injury while training with England and found himself sidelined for his country’s ill-fated 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign.
Red Devils manager Sir Alex Ferguson had not expected the player to make his return before the end of September, but was pleased to report that Ferdinand had returned to training.
'Fantastic' effort in training
At today’s press conference ahead of his side’s EPL clash with West Ham tomorrow, Ferguson said that: “Rio Ferdinand has trained this week, which is a big surprise to me. He’s made fantastic progress in the last week or so. I must admit, he hadn’t done anything, football-wise, when I spoke last week. I think when he read what I said, it maybe gave him a kick. He came in, trained this week and he’s done fantastic, really good.”
Ferguson added that Ferdinand was much closer to making a return than he anticipated. He said that: “He’ll train with the reserves today and won’t be involved tomorrow, of course, but we’ll just have to try and think when we can maybe get a game with him in the next two weeks. He’s that close.”
Injured in South Africa
The defender suffered the injury when he collided with team-mate Emile Heskey at England’s first training session in South Africa ahead of the World Cup.
Though he will miss his country’s UEFA 2012 European Football Championship qualifying matches against Bulgaria next Friday and Switzerland the following Tuesday, Ferguson’s announcement means Ferdinand may be set to make his first-team return against Everton on September 11.
Before that though, Ferdinand will start working his way back to match fitness as he appears ready to play in a reserve game or closed-doors friendly next week during the international break.
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