Manchester City rue 1-0 Barclay's Asia victory after Matija Nastajic is injured

Manchester City won the Barclays Asia Trophy last night, but may rue participating after the disgraceful pitch seemed to claim another victim.

City beat Sunderland 1-0 thanks to a superb first-half volley from Edin Dzeko, but Matija Nastajic, the 20-year-old who was the best young defender in the Premier League last season, was stretchered off, clearly in considerable pain.

"I can't tell you [how bad the injury is] now, the doctor has to see him tomorrow when he arrives in Manchester," said City manager Manuel Pellegrini. "We are concerned, it is his ankle and the doctor is looking at it, but we won't know until tomorrow."

Pellegrini refused to blame the pitch, insisting the injury was the result of a kick, not a twist like that suffered by Spurs' Jan Vertonghen on Wednesday. "I don't think so," he said when invited to blame the surface. "It was part of the game and it could have happened on any pitch."

Perhaps, but Manchester United are not taking any chances. They cancelled today's planned open training session at the stadium, denying fans the chance to see their heroes up close; reports in England yesterday even claimed they were examining their contract with Kitchee to see if they could get out of the friendly, with manager David Moyes admitting he was worried.

The pitch deteriorated almost immediately upon kick-off between Tottenham and South China; a fresh downpour that started during that game continued for much of the final. Both teams escaped unscathed until the 72nd minute, when Nastajic went down.