With six points from five Premiership games and a 10-point gap to close on champions Arsenal, the long-serving United boss knows victory is essential in tomorrow night’s Old Trafford crunch with Liverpool.

Given the only defender Ferguson included among the three men who matched his lofty expectations in Lyon on Wednesday was Gabriel Heinze, it would be a major surprise if the Scot didn’t turn to Ferdinand to bale him out of a crisis, even though the 25-year-old has not been seen since he limped out of the 1-0 defeat to Wolves last January.

O’Shea is expected to be alongside Ferdinand in the United rearguard as Rafael Benitez arrives for his first experience of the fierce north-west rivalry and while the young Irishman believes the surge of adrenalin his team-mate is bound to feel should get him through the 90 minutes, he has cautioned against expectations being raised too high.

“I am sure the adrenalin rush will get Rio through the game without a problem but we shouldn’t expect miracles from him,” he said.

“He has done a lot of fitness work but that isn’t the same as playing matches and while I don’t think it will be long before he gets his form back, it is bound to take a little bit of time.

“I think this has probably been the longest week of his life because he is so close now.

“He can see the games in front of us at United and the World Cup matches for England and that probably reminds him what he missed out on. Hopefully he will get rid of that frustration by playing out of his skin.”

Ferguson has already claimed the loss of the world’s most expensive defender because of the hefty punishment imposed over his failure to take a random drugs test at United’s Carrington training ground 12 months ago probably cost his team their Premiership crown.

It is an assessment O’Shea agrees with totally – and he has the statistics to prove it.

“Losing Rio was a major factor in last season’s title race,” he said.

“At the time he was playing the best football of his career, we were top of the league and had the best defensive record. The next thing it all went up in the air.

“Then we lost Gary Neville and Mikael Silvestre to injury and it all added up.”

Having started the new season sluggishly amid a chronic injury list, Ferguson is hoping to get some much-needed continuity in his team selection, particularly in defence which has tended to be spared the rotation policy adopted in other areas of the team.

Ferdinand’s return will help in that area, although with Neville not due back for another three weeks after fracturing his kneecap, Ferguson is still going to be denied what he classes as his first-choice back four.

The Scot must also make a major decision over his goalkeeper after Tim Howard followed up his mistake against Bolton with a similar blunder in France.

Roy Carroll performed creditably when he replaced Howard in similar circumstances towards the end of last season and was unlucky to eventually concede his place back to the American, who would probably benefit from a stint out of the firing line.

Either way, it is now a time to pick a defensive unit and stick with it. Then, O’Shea is convinced, the results will start to follow.

“It has been proven over the past few years that once we have a settled back four we start getting clean sheets,” he said.

“There is no doubt the injuries have upset the balance of the team. Gabriel Heinze has only played two games, Wes Brown has just come back into the side and I have had a few niggles as well and missed the Bolton game.

“We all recognise that we need to stamp out the mistakes we have been making, work harder on the training pitch and get our concentration levels a lot higher.

Tomorrow night’s game is a massive one for us and it represents a great chance to kick-start our season, keep some clean sheets and go on a decent unbeaten run.”