Fergie hopeful over Vidic

Watch Chelsea v United, live on Sky Sports 1, from 12pm on Saturday

Last updated: 25th April 2008

Nemanja Vidic agony Reading v Man United

Vidic: Should be fit

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Sir Alex Ferguson is optimistic that Nemanja Vidic will be fit for Manchester United's title showdown with Chelsea.

Vidic, who has recently returned from a knee injury, missed United's 0-0 draw in Barcelona on Wednesday night due to a stomach complaint.

Speaking after the UEFA Champions League tie, Ferguson appeared pessimistic about the Serbian's prospects of featuring at Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime, live on Sky Sports 1.

However, Vidic trained on Friday morning and Ferguson feels the commanding centre-half will be able to resume his partnership with Rio Ferdinand.

Good chance

"Vidic will hopefully be okay," Ferguson told the club's official website. "He has trained this morning.

"We are hopeful he will be fit. He has a good chance.

"We dealt with it [the virus] right away. We got him to the hospital quickly. We hope he is going to be alright."

Ferguson also confirmed he is likely to make changes to the team which held Barcelona to a scoreless draw in the first leg of their semi-final tie.

He added: "I will freshen up one or two positions. With the squad I've got, I can do that.

"There's nothing definite at the moment, but I will make a couple of changes."

Relaxing

The United boss also believes that Chelsea are at an advantage ahead of Saturday's match due to having had an extra 24 hours to prepare.

"The Liverpool fixture with Chelsea was Tuesday followed by Wednesday, so there is four days either way to get themselves ready, which is a big advantage, there is no question about that," said the Scot.

"Unfortunately, we have 60 hours to prepare for this game. All we can do is rest them. We stayed overnight in Barcelona. Then we had a light training session at Barcelona's training ground. Being in the sun and having a day relaxing is probably the best thing we could have done."