Rio Ferdinand is likely to miss three to four weeks with a leg injury the defender suffered in training at the weekend.

The news is a blow to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United's hopes of reclaiming the championship from Manchester City. United begin their title challenge at Everton on Monday evening with the manager now having only one fit central defender, Nemanja Vidic, who has not played a senior game since damaging his cruciate ligament last December.

Ferdinand joins Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans on United's injury list with Ferguson possibly being forced to choose Michael Carrick alongside Vidic at Goodison Park on Monday night.

While City suffered their own potential injury blow when Sergio Agüero was carried off in Sunday's 3-2 win over Southampton – the player is awaiting scan results – figures from physioroom.com show that last season United lost the most days to injury, 1,681, and City the least, 186.

Ferdinand tweeted on Monday: "P***ed off doesn't get close to how I feel at the moment. Sake", possibly in reference to his latest layoff.