Anxious wait to see extent of Fred injury

FRED faces a nervous wait to discover the full extent of his ankle trauma.

The Brazilian international, who has agreed a £52m move to United, suffered the injury when tackled by Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro in training on Thursday.

While teammate Marcelo described the problem as ‘not serious’ - Brazil’s medical staff are still waiting to make a full assessment. Team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar was due to do further tests yesterday.

“If tomorrow he continues in pain and some signal makes us more alert, we may need an imaging examination, but there is no strategy whether it will be here or in Austria,” he said. “He has had an ankle trauma, but it is still too early for any evaluation, he has already begun the recovery work, he had that part in real pain. It’s early for any diagnosis, we need to wait for more. “The first 24 hours are crucial.” Jose Mourinho has identified Fred as part of his midfield revamp this summer.

United have agreed a deal with Shakhtar Donetsk and the 25-year-old completed a medical at Carrington earlier this week. But the sight of him screaming in pain following a sliding tackle from Casemiro was a worrying one for Mourinho.

Marcelo, at least, offered some words of comfort.

“This is the World Cup,” he said. “Everybody’s training hard, working hard and there are these moments in training.

“But I believe it’s not that serious, I believe it’s not a big problem for us and I think he’ll be back with us as soon as possible.”