Moyes Confident Van Persie Injury Is Not Serious

Van Persie went down holding his knee. Photo: PA

David Moyes is confident that the knee injury suffered by Robin van Persie in Wednesday's epic comeback against Olympiacos is not serious.

Van Persie scored a stunning hat-trick to give Manchester United the 3-0 win they needed to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Some of the gloss was taken off the dramatic night, though, when Van Persie was carried off on a stretcher in the dying minutes of the match after a tackle by Giannis Maniatis.

United will scan the player using their newly-installed state-of-the-art machinery at the AON Training Complex on Thursday and Moyes is hopeful that he will receive good news.

RVP left the field on a stretcher, not a good sign for Man Utd. Credit: PA

• Full report of Man Utd's epic win

"I don't think he is too bad," the United manager said of his star striker.
"He has got a knock just behind his knee. We will assess it and we will know more in the morning.
"He has got a knee in the back of his knee but hopefully it is not too bad.

Van Persie scored a penalty and then converted Wayne Rooney's cross before rounding off the win with a stunning free-kick in the second half.

Moyes praised the former Arsenal striker's efforts afterwards.

"To score a hat-trick in Champions League football is a big thing," he said.

"I think there are only certain players in the world capable of it, and Robin Van Persie is one of them.
"He gets his penalty kick, he scored a great free-kick and Wayne did brilliantly well for him for the second goal.

"It is great that he got a hat-trick because he is a top player, he really is, and I think he showed that tonight."
Moyes had to face questions about his future for the first time on Tuesday following Sunday's hurtful loss to Liverpool.

But the Scot is sure he still retains the backing of the board and he now hopes to use the 3-2 aggregate win as a springboard for the rest of the season.

"I don't want to come out here and say this is the moment (we turned things around), but in the same breath, I really hope it is," Moyes said.

"But we know the job we have in hand and we know it is a work in progress and it is going to take time to get things exactly the way we want it."

Unless they win all their remaining nine games, starting with West Ham at Upton Park on Saturday, United will end the season with their lowest points total in the history of the Premier League.