Edwin back at Villa

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed Edwin van der Sar's toe injury is a recurrence of a knock that forced the stopper out of Holland's recent friendly against Switzerland.

The 36-year-old collided with Liverpool forward and international team-mate Dirk Kuyt during a Dutch training session on 21 August but recovered in time to face Tottenham at Old Trafford that weekend.

Van der Sar aggravated the injury at St. Andrews in United's 1-0 win last Saturday and United boss Ferguson says the goalkeeper is likely to miss "a couple of games".

"He picked up an injury training with Holland some weeks ago and it's resurfaced," Sir Alex told United Radio. "We'll give him a few days' break and it looks like we'll have him back for our trip to Villa Park [on Saturday 20 October]."

Ferguson insisted van der Sar's problem wasn't serious and ruled out any suggestion that United's no.1 had become the latest victim of a broken metatarsal.

"Every time a player goes down holding his foot these days you get people talking about metatarsals, but it's not that. It's a toe injury and he should be back in a couple of games."