Ferdinand return on hold

Rio Ferdinand was injured in training with England in South Africa

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.says defender Rio Ferdinand is still a month away from returning to action

The England captain has spent the last two months recovering from the knee ligament injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.
Ferguson revealed on 25th July that the 31-year-old would not be back in action for six weeks, ruling him out of the start of the new Barclays Premier League season and making him a major doubt for England's opening two Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria on 3rd September and Switzerland four days later.

That estimation now looks to have been slightly optimistic.

month away

Ferguson said: "Rio is nowhere near, no. He's doing little bits of jogging and things like that but I think he's a month away.
"We always anticipated it would take time. It's a knee ligament and, although it wasn't what you'd call a serious one, it was a hard one. You have to take time with knee ligaments."
Injury problems meant Ferdinand made just 13 Barclays Premier League appearances in 2009/10 and the manager is hoping for better fortunes once the defender returns to full fitness.
The Scot added: "Rio has had a bad 12 months and we hope it gets better for him.
"You hope the break over the summer with missing the World Cup will help him.
"The back injury seemed to sort itself out as the season went on, then he had the groin injury.
"He's had a succession of these things and you don't want to see that when a player is in his 30s."