Sick United duo to return
30 Dec 2007 - 16:41:22
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is confident both Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick will have shaken off viruses in time to play against Birmingham City on New Year's Day.
The duo were unable to travel to London for Saturday's 2-1 defeat at West Ham United because of the bug, but Ferguson sees no reason why they will not have recovered in time to play against Alex McLeish's side.
"Wayne and Michael should be OK, they were both suffering from a virus," Ferguson told United's official website.
"Michael was taken ill during the night, the doctor attended to him on Saturday morning and he just couldn't perform, there was no way he could have taken part.
"Wayne was ruled out on Friday, he went down with a virus. There's little bits going down at this time of year, quite a few clubs have got it I suppose. But hopefully they'll all be ready for Tuesday."
Meanwhile, Ferguson admitted his side deserved nothing from the Upton Park clash, adding: "We didn't play well, particularly in the first half. They were very aggressive, tackled everywhere and we never got our game going.
"I don't think we deserved to be in front to be honest with you. They were the better team, they had two or three attempts, hit the bar, had a few efforts scrambled away from our penalty area and really we just didn't perform.
"I still couldn't see us losing, but losing two goals from set-pieces tells you everything. If you're losing goals at set-pieces then there's something wrong, your performance isn't at the top level. You can't afford to do that.
"Sometimes you have to say that, from time to time, human beings are going to have a bad performance. I can't pick out a player who played well for us, and that tells the story."