United face Berbatov surgery dilemma

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will on Monday make a decision on whether Dimitar Berbatov (pictured), a scorer in the 3-0 win over Burnley, requires knee surgery.

The Bulgarian striker has been struggling for a number of weeks with the injury and United had hoped he would be able to play through the discomfort, but he was bothered by his knee once again despite going on to score in United's victory at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Ferguson took him off in the closing stages and will now consider whether he needs an operation.

He said: "Dimitar was feeling his knee again. We'll look at it on Monday and we'll see (about surgery). He could have come off at halftime but he wanted to stay on again and that's good.

"Let's hope the goal does Dimitar some good. I thought he was the one that looked like scoring and it was one of those days when he kept knocking it past the post or over the bar.

"He had so many attempts, he must have had about 10 attempts and he'll be relieved to get his goal."

Ferguson feels that the return of Edwin van der Sar could be a key point in United's season.

The Dutch goalkeeper has been missing since early November due to injury and was then given compassionate leave after his wife, Annmarie, suffered a brain haemorrhage.

But he kept a clean sheet on his return to the team and Ferguson expects him to make a significant difference.

He said: "He was magnificent against Burnley, unbelievable. What a performance - steady, decision-making, use of the ball.

"Tomasz (Kuszczak) has done fantastically well and it's no slight on him but Edwin made a difference simply because he's 39 years of age, he's got 130 caps, he's got that experience, he's won two European medals.

"He's had a fantastic career and it showed again."

AFP

(China Daily 01/18/2010 page24)