Rio Ferdinand has given Sir Alex Ferguson another defensive headache after leaving the Riverside with his foot in a protective case following Manchester United's 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.

United can ill afford to lose Ferdinand for long with fellow centre-back Nemanja Vidic out for three weeks and some crucial matches coming up in the Premier League and Champions League.

Ferdinand limped off during the match and left the stadium with his foot in a plastic case, as a precaution.

Ferguson said: "Hopefully it's not serious with Rio but he was limping for too long.

"The danger was to keep carrying on with him when he was limping he was not playing at his full performance level."

It looks unlikely that Ferdinand will play in Wednesday's Champions League second leg against Roma, especially with Gerard Pique impressing Ferguson as a replacement for the England defender.

"Pique came on and did absolutely terrific, he was absolutely marvellous and I think that helped us actually," added Ferguson.

Meanwhile, Francesco Totti has been left out of Roma's squad with a thigh problem.

The Giallorossi captain missed the weekend's 3-2 win over Genoa and his name did not feature on the squad list published on the club's official website.

Roma boss Luciano Spalletti had said after Saturday's win in Rome that it might be better for Totti to miss the United game and fully recover for next weekend's Serie A clash at Udinese.

Second-placed Roma are four points behind Internazionale in the race for the Italian title with the domestic championship now taking priority over the Champions League given the unlikelihood of overhauling United.

Sporting Life / Reuters