Manchester United defender Paddy McNair sidelined for two weeks following abdominal problem

Manchester United defender Paddy McNair faces being out of action for two weeks after suffering an abdominal injury. The 20-year-old picked up the problem in the 13<sup>th minute of Northern Ireland's 1-1 draw with Finland on 11 October but finished the first half before being taken off after 51 minutes.

While the rest of his team celebrated their qualification for the 2016 European Championship, McNair stayed in hospital where he remained with the Irish Football Association team doctor amid fears had ruptured his liver.

The centre-half, who made 19 appearances for Louis van Gaal's side last season, has now been given the all-clear, according to Sky Sports, and will leave hospital on 14 October before returning to Manchester where he can recover from bruising around the organs near his ribs. Should the two-week prognosis be correct, McNair would be unavailable for league matches with Everton and Manchester City in addition to United's Champions League trip to CKSA Moscow.

United travel to Goodison Park to take on Everton in their next Premier League match on 17 October. Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney were brief injury doubts after missing England's games against Estonia and Lithuania but Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson assured reporters at a press conference they would be fit for the match. "From his [Rooney's] point of view, and United's, the rest will do him good. I fully expect to see him fit for United next weekend," Hodgson said, as quoted by ESPN.

"Michael Carrick trained fully in quite an intense training session on Wednesday, but had a recurrence of a feeling that he sometimes gets in his groin - a slight tightening of the groin - and we didn't want to take any chances."

Marcos Rojo, whose Premier League action has been limited to just 22 minutes off the bench against Southampton, also withdrew from the Argentina squad due to a hamstring problem. Elsewhere, midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger missed Germany's games against Republic of Ireland and Georgia after suffering a hip injury in the build-up to the match against Martin O'Neill's side. But the 31-year-old did return to training over the weekend.