Rio to sit out United friendly

Rio Ferdinand will sit out Manchester United's friendly against Norwegian side Valarengen on Tuesday as he continues to settle into life at Old Trafford.

The record £30m (€47m)capture from Leeds pleaded to be given a run out at Bournemouth on Saturday and was rewarded with the final 17 minutes of action as United emerged with a 3-2 win in Mel Machin's testimonial.

However, boss Alex Ferguson believes the flight to Norway would be a trip too far for the England centre-half, and, like the rest of his international team-mates, will remain in Manchester until Thursday before linking up with the squad for the four-team tournament in Amsterdam at the weekend.

South African winger Quinton Fortune will also stay at home following his World Cup exertions, although Juan Sebastian Veron and Diego Forlan, who also took part in the tournament, did make the trip to Scandinavia.

All the rest of United's big names also boarded the plane, with exception of injured England full-back Gary Neville.

The only surprise was the inclusion of 19-year-old midfielder Danny Pugh, who joins new Scottish international Michael Stewart and Bojan Djodic among the youth brigade.

Stewart made a positive impression on Scotland's pre-World Cup tour to the Far East but may have to be content with a return to the national Under-21 set-up unless he forces his way into the United first-team over the coming weeks.

"Michael did well and he has a lot of talent but there is a problem because he has to play in the first team a little bit more," Vogts told Sky Sports News.

"He will stay in my thoughts but he will probably have to play in the Under-21s for a little bit."

Having recorded two victories simultaneously at Bournemouth and Chesterfield on Saturday, United's pre-season programme now begins in earnest.

They take on hosts Ajax and Italian side Parma at the Amsterdam ArenA on Friday and Sunday evenings respectively, before travelling onto Denmark where they are scheduled to meet Aarhus next Tuesday.

Denied their usual outing in the Charity Shield because of a disappointing third-place finish in the Premier League, United's final warm-up game will be against Veron's former club Boca Juniors in a match arranged to aid UNICEF.

Then it will be onto either Hungary or Croatia where the Red Devils will meet either Zalaegerszegi or NK Zagreb in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.