United face Berbatov surgery dilemma

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will on Monday make a decision on whether Dimitar Berbatov, a scorer in the 3-0 win over Burnley, requires knee surgery.

The Bulgarian striker has been struggling for a number of weeks with the injury and United had hoped he would be able to play through the discomfort, but he was bothered by his knee once again despite going on to score in United’s victory at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Ferguson took him off in the closing stages and will now consider whether he needs an operation.

He said: “Dimitar was feeling his knee again. We’ll look at it on Monday and we’ll see (about surgery). He could have come off at half-time but he wanted to stay on again and that’s good.

“Let’s hope the goal does Dimitar some good. I thought he was the one that looked like scoring and it was one of those days when he kept knocking it past the post or over the bar.

“He had so many attempts, he must have had about 10 attempts and he’ll be relieved to get his goal.”

Ferguson feels that the return of Edwin van der Sar could be a key point in United?s season.

The Dutch goalkeeper has been missing since early November due to injury and was then given compassionate leave after his wife Annmarie suffered a brain haemorrhage.

But he kept a clean sheet on his return to the team and Ferguson expects him to make a significant difference.

He added: “He was magnificent against Burnley, unbelievable. What a performance – steady, decision-making, use of the ball.

“Tomasz (Kuszczak) has done fantastically well and it’s no slight on him but Edwin made a difference simply because he’s 39 years of age, he’s got 130 caps, he’s got that experience, he’s won two European medals.

“He’s had a fantastic career and it showed again.”

Ferguson has also been impressed by the contribution of Senegalese striker Mame Biram Diouf, who joined the club from Norwegian club FC Molde.

After Berbatov and Wayne Rooney gave United a two-goal lead, the new signing scored his first goal in English football in the closing stages against Burnley.

And Ferguson feels that Diouf is a real prospect.

He said: “He’s got great spring the boy, he’s quick and he looks to run behind them (the defenders) all the time and he’s very good in the air.

“He’s got a lot of good attributes we can use. We’re excited about the boy.”

Ferguson has also confirmed that he intends to make a string of changes for Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final first leg at Manchester City.

He added: “We’ll have a look at it on Sunday and look at the best way to go about the game and some of the younger players will come in. Darron Gibson will play a part and young Rafael and Fabio are players who deserve a chance.”

New Burnley manager Brian Laws confirmed he hopes to keep on-loan Portsmouth striker David Nugent at Turf Moor.

Laws, who took over from Owen Coyle last week, also revealed that Steven Fletcher, who limped off with an ankle problem, was taken to hospital for x-rays.

He said: “He had a kick on the ankle and has gone to hospital for an x-ray.

“Nugent was excellent and we will try ever so hard to secure his services. Negotiations with Portsmouth are underway. We know he can?t go anywhere else on loan. He can stay with us or they sell him; that is the simple equation.”

Laws added: “My ambition is to stay in the Premier League. We knew coming to Old Trafford wouldn’t do that, this is not the game that makes the difference.

“The games that matter are playing the teams around us. If we don’t take points off them, those teams will overtake you.

“We have identified the games to take points from and win. Man United was a bonus if we had got anything out of it. The bonus is that in my first game in charge there were more plusses than minuses.”