With Nemanja Vidic out suspended, Wes Brown and Gary Neville not quite ready to go yet and Johnny Evans suffering a flare up of an old injury at the weekend against Blackburn, there’s talk that Sir Alex Ferguson could be looking at defensive midfielder Michael Carrick sliding to the back and pairing with Rio Ferdinand against Inter Milan.

Via Guardian

“I just hope we can get two centre-backs out because at this moment it’s very doubtful,” said Ferguson. “We don’t have [Nemanja] Vidic, we don’t have Gary Neville and we don’t have Wes Brown. I just hope we can get John O’Shea ­available.

“But we’re having a nightmare with defenders this season. Gary, Wes and John all missed the Blackburn game and now Evans has done his ankle. Hopefully we can patch up a defence but it does leave us very, very short.”

His best hope is O’Shea, who will have extensive treatment to ascertain whether he can play despite a heel problem. Failing that, Ferguson will have to find a partner for Ferdinand from elsewhere in the team. Fletcher, who has filled in as an emergency right-back before, would be an obvious candidate and the 6ft 2in ­Carrick is another option.

Either choice would constitute a ­significant gamble but the manager could be faced with little other option if O’Shea, who is currently rated at 50-50 to play, does not improve sufficiently. Neville has been suffering from a virus as well as a muscle strain in his lower leg and Ferguson said the former England international would not return to the squad until the Carling Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley on Sunday.

Brown’s luckless run of injuries continued in training earlier this month when he broke a metatarsal, meaning a spell of four to six weeks out, and Vidic is serving a one-match suspension. His absence deprives his manager of a defender whom he has already nominated as a candidate for player of the season.

Image via DailyMail