Carlos Queiroz apologised to Martin Taylor yesterday after the Manchester United assistant manager made a derogatory reference to the Birmingham City defender in the wake of his team’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Portsmouth at the weekend. However, the Portuguese expressed no such remorse regarding his comments about Martin Atkinson, the referee.

The FA indicated yesterday that it will write to Queiroz and Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, to “ask for their observations” about their fierce criticism of Atkinson’s performance at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Queiroz referred to the referee as “this robber”, while Ferguson condemned the appointments of officials by Keith Hackett, the general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, the referees’ body.

They are expected to be charged by the FA, but Queiroz accepted that he had been wrong to refer to Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo da Silva, which left the Arsenal forward with a broken leg.

Speaking about what he perceived to be Portsmouth’s physical approach, Queiroz had said: “That’s why the Taylors of this game can survive and some of the best players are out of the game.” However, yesterday he sought to clarify his comments. “Everyone at Manchester United knows that Martin Taylor is not that type of player,” he said. “I apologise for any upset my remarks may have caused.”

Edwin van der Sar had a scan yesterday on the thigh injury that prevented him from appearing for the second half against Portsmouth and the goalkeeper has been ruled out of the Barclays Premier League matches away to Derby County on Saturday and at home to Bolton Wanderers a week tomorrow. With Tomasz Kuszczak suspended after being sent off in the same game, Ben Foster is likely to be given his United debut against Derby.