Tim Howard suffered a dislocated finger in the USA's 4-2 defeat to Brazil in Chicago on Sunday.

The Everton keeper completed the 90 minutes for the US despite the injury but the injury could make him a doubt for Saturday's Barclays Premier League encounter against his former club Manchester United.

Howard, who returns to the UK today, said: “It was pretty sore. I just tried to play through it, and hoped that the adrenaline would get me through it. You know to be honest, you know how it is when you travel with injuries—right now it’s swollen like a balloon, and I’m hoping that the flight doesn’t take too much out of it. I’ll see the doctors when I get back.”

Howard remains confident he will figure for the Blues against United as Everton seek to continue their promising start to the 2007/08 campaign.

The US keeper was certainly kept busy in Sunday's friendly against Brazil. Dubbed the 'Battle of the Americas' because of the success of both countries in their respective international tournaments this year, the Gold Cup and the Copa America, 43,543 people packed into Soldier Field for a game that provided plenty of entertainment.

The US opened the scoring courtesy of a strike from Fulham's Carlos Bocanegra, assisted by Galaxy's Landon Donovan, after 21 minutes. An own goal from Oguchi Onyewu 12 minutes later levelled the scores.

quelle: fceverton.com