Injured duo OK for Tuesday?

Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney were both in the wars again this weekend, as United lost the battle at Stamford Bridge.

Serbian centre-back Vidic, who missed the midweek match in Barcelona, saw just eight minutes of action against Chelsea. The defender came off worse in a duel with Didier Drogba and was treated by physio Rob Swire before leaving the field on a stretcher.

“He (Vidic) got kneed in the face by Drogba - and no foul was given," grimaced Sir Alex, who had certain other grumbles about the officials.

"He’s got a few stitches under his lip and he’s lost a tooth. He was dazed rather than concussed but if we’d waited for him to come round we would have played 10 or 15 minutes (with ten men) and you can’t afford that in such a big game. So we had to take him off."

United played the remaining 82 minutes with the same back four that started at the Nou Camp, with Owen Hargreaves coming on at right-back and Wes Brown replacing Vidic as Rio Ferdinand's partner in the centre. The reorganised rearguard kept Chelsea at bay for almost 40 minutes before Michael Ballack scored in first-half injury time - and for a similar length of time in the second period until Ballack scored his controversial penalty.

The scorer of United's goal, Wayne Rooney was the next casualty to be withdrawn, moments after scoring United's equaliser.

“Rooney’s got the same knock as he got last week, straight on the hip bone. It takes a while for that to clear because when you get a bang on it, it’s very painful. I’m hopeful he will be alright for Tuesday. Other than that, I think everyone’s okay.

“It reflected in my team selection today because we’re one step away from Moscow. We can’t turn that down and hopefully we can do it.”