Man Utd Team News & Injury Update: Latest On Young, Evans, Vidic & More…

Manchester United travel to the Britannia Stadium on Sunday to take on Stoke City looking to bounce back from Monday’s derby defeat to Manchester City.

Ahead of the game, boss Sir Alex Ferguson has been in front of the media for his pre-match press conference and gave ManUtd.com a team news and injury update with the latest on Ashley Young, Chris Smalling, Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans and Paul Scholes.

The good news is that Evans has been training all week and is in contention to start this weekend while Vidic is also expected to return to full training on Friday. Fellow defender Smalling is also working his way back to full fitness and midfield veteran Scholes is due back with the rest of the squad on Monday after being out for several weeks with a knee problem.

However, Ferguson also confirmed that winger Young is likely to be on the sidelines for around two weeks after picking up an ankle injury during Monday’s clash with City at Old Trafford. Here’s what the United boss told the clubs official website:

“I’m hoping Vida will start training today, Jonny Evans has trained this week, which is better news than we had building up to Monday’s game.

“Ashley Young is out – he got a sore whack on his ankle and is maybe out for two weeks. Other than that, we’re in good shape in terms of player availability.

“Chris Smalling started running this week and Paul Scholes will start training with the first-team on Monday. He’s done a fair bit in the last week or so and it will be a terrific boost to get his football intelligence back in the squad. He’s been out for a few weeks now so he’ll need a good bit of training with us.”

With Evans returning it gives Ferguson more options at the back and the Northern Irishman is likely to come in to play alongside Rio Ferdinand at the Britannia. Young’s absence will be a blow but United have plenty of options available with Danny Welbeck expected to move out to the left this weekend.

Now we’ve seen the team news, what would be your starting eleven for the game on Sunday? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.