Manchester United have confirmed that Rodrigo Possebon has not broken his leg. The Brazilian midfielder was the victim of an appalling challenge by Middlesbrough's Emanuel Pogatetz during the Carling Cup third-round match at Old Trafford last night.

"We can confirm that Rodrigo did not suffer a break to his right leg," a club spokesperson said. "He was kept in hospital overnight for observation and to assess whether there was any ligament damage to his knee."

The incident happened midway through the second half when Pogatetz launched a shameful lunge at Possebon who felt the full force of the defender’s studs. The 19-year-old suffered a four-inch gash high on his shin and he had to be given oxygen as United’s medical team attached a splint to his leg before carrying the player off on a stretcher and taking him to hospital.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, was shaken by the challenge and highly critical of the Austria defender's protests against his red card. “For the kid to make his first-team debut and get an injury like that was pretty horrendous," he said. "For the ten minutes after, I think everyone was numb about it. It killed the momentum a bit, too. The thing about these challenges is that the opponent always claims his innocence. That’s what I can’t understand, he should have just walked off.”

Gareth Southgate, the MIddlesbrough manager, apologised to Ferguson for what he conceded was a poor tackle. “Our first thoughts are with the lad, but in terms of the impact it [the sending-off] had on the game, we had just got ourselves back into it and then that knocked all our momentum,” he said. “The last two years he [Pogatetz] has worked incredibly hard on his disciplinary record and that’s an unusual aberration for him.”