Viana: Injury not as bad as feared

By Matthew Jones
November 20 2002

Hugo Viana could make a shock return to action against Manchester United on Saturday despite suffering damage to his knee ligaments last week.

Hugo Viana could make a shock return to action against Manchester United on Saturday despite suffering damage to his knee ligaments last week.

The Portuguese teenager was diagnosed as having damaged his knee ligaments following last Saturday's 2-1 win over Southampton and was pulled out of his country's squad to face Scotland this week. There were fears that he would be sidelined for a month but specialists now believe the damage Viana suffered was minimal and he is rated at 50-50 to play at Old Trafford.

And, if he suffers no adverse reaction, then he will definitely feature in the Champions League visit of Inter Milan next week.

The news will come as a massive boost for boss Sir Bobby Robson and he may not now need French winger Laurent Robert to play against Inter with the face mask that he was proposing to.