Wes Brown warns Manchester United stars about Hong Kong pitch

The surface at the stadium has been criticised by managers Andre Villas-Boas and Paolo Di Canio for causing injury, and now the champions' former stopper has warned of the dangers

Sunderland defender Wes Brown has warned Manchester United that their players risk suffering injury at the Hong Kong Stadium.
The former United defender played on the pitch twice at the Barclays Asia Trophy, first in a 3-1 win against Tottnham and then in a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City in Saturday's final.

And Brown is now warning the Premier League champions, who play Kitchee FC at 13.00BST on Monday, to take extra caution on a surface that was branded "killer" by Black Cats boss Paolo Di Canio.

“It’s a bad pitch,” Brown told reporters. “If it keeps raining it just gets worse and it was like playing on a beach.

“A little slip here and there, people are doing all sorts. It’s not the best, if you do slip then anything can happen.

“You think about the pitch under your feet, and little sharp turns are hard to do. If you take a wrong turn you could twist or do something."

Brown's appearance against Spurs was his first after being out injured for a year, and he his relieved to come through unscathed.

“I was worried about playing on it a little bit but I’ve come through fine. Tired but fine. We’ve done a lot of training out here,” he added.