The Walking Wounded

If you have a ticket for the Bolton game at Old Trafford on Saturday, you’d better bring your boots with you! There’s an injury curse striking United just at the wrong time. As the calendar fills up with matches, the treatment room’s getting crowded too.

O'Shea Limped Off Against OM

After the glitz and glamour of the Champions League, it’s back to basics for United this weekend. A sobering North-West derby with Bolton is next on the crammed agenda for Sir Alex and the lads. The games just keep on coming so it’s alarming to see the players drop like flies.

By the end of Tuesday night, United were without the services of a really decent starting line-up: In goal, Anders Lindegaard, (facing 5 weeks out after minor knee surgery), right-back John O’Shea (hamstring – also out for five weeks), left-back Jonny Evans (ankle), centre-backs Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic (both calf), Right-wing Rafael and left-wing Ji-Sung Park (both hamstring), central midfield Owen Hargreaves and Anderson (both knee) and Darren Fletcher (illness) with Michael Owen as the lone frontman (groin – could return on Saturday). Not a bad side at all.

In fact, it’s a team which is more than capable of beating many of the Bolton sides which have turned up here down the years. They’ve been a bit of a soft touch for United in recent seasons, losing on their last seven visits to Old Trafford. But Owen Coyle’s outfit is a different animal to the sides of Allardyce and Megson, bearing the Scot's more refined hallmarks.

Gone are the days of hit and hope. Bolton now possess some ballplayers of their own and are in nosebleed territory, riding high in the table. New signing Danny Sturridge has injected some pace and striking consistency into the Lancashire outfit with four goals in four Barclays Premier League starts, while the energetic Chung Yong Lee and the unflappable Gary Cahill have strengthened the spine of a side which still owes much to the industry of Kevin Davies. He may be approaching his 34th birthday, but the Bolton skipper is still banging them into the onion bag and launching himself at high balls to tee up others.

That said, United still have enough in the locker to gain another three points this weekend and the Reds should take some motivation from the courage shown by one of the club’s greatest ever players. I’m talking of course about Bryan Robson, who revealed this week that he recently had a tumour removed from his throat. I am proud to call Robbo a hero of mine and privileged to also call him a friend. I think I speak for all of us when I say ‘we’re right behind you Captain Marvel, get well soon.'