Manchester United will ask Michael Carrick to continue in a defensive role to solve one of the worst injury crises of Sir Alex Ferguson's 23-year reign at Old Trafford. Carrick came on to replace Gary Neville at centre-back in Saturday's 4-0 victory against West Ham at Upton Park, despite never having previously played in the position. He is now likely to partner Nemanja Vidic on Tuesday night against Wolfsburg in the Champions League.
Ferguson expects Vidic to have recovered from a bout of flu but will be without a number of defenders including Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, John O'Shea, Neville, who pulled up with a groin injury, Rafael da Silva and Wes Brown, who limped off in the dying minutes.
Arsène Wenger, meanwhile, is "devastated" at the news that Tomas Rosicky could be out for a month with a groin injury. Wenger had to withdraw the Czech Republic midfielder halfway through his side's 2-0 win over Stoke on Saturday. The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder spent 18 months out of the side before making his comeback from a series of hamstring and knee injuries against Manchester City in September. The Arsenal manager has used Rosicky sparingly since his return but is now facing up to the possibility he could be without the player for up to a month. "He's devastated and I am as well," said Wenger, whose side have suffered in the absence of the forward Robin van Persie. "Before the [Stoke] match I told myself 'he has played the whole game on Wednesday, should I take the gamble or not as it was such an important game?'. But by half-time he was struggling."
Wenger also had to do without the Croatia striker Eduardo da Silva for 18 months after he broke his leg in a tackle by Birmingham's Martin Taylor in 2008. The 26-year-old took time to regain his full fitness following the injury and Wenger believes Rosicky is having the same problem.
"It's a vicious circle when you have been out for a long time. Eduardo had not played for 18 months, Tomas has not played for 18 months," said Wenger. "When you come back, for one or two games your body has to get used to producing the energy levels again and it's difficult. Nobody masters that."
