Cole and Vidic injuries add to the intrigue as United chase history

Never mind the perils of the pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium, Ashley Cole was the victim of a challenge by Claude Makelele last night that has thrown Chelsea's plans for the Champions League final against Manchester United here tonight into confusion. The England left-back was helped off the pitch and his right ankle heavily strapped, placing a serious doubt over the fitness of the man who Chelsea hope will mark Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cole did hobble back on to the pitch to try to complete the training session but, after 10 minutes testing out the injury, he walked off down the tunnel and into what will be an uncertain 24 hours for Chelsea. Cole may only be the team's left-back but, just one day before the biggest game in the club's history, his injury is hardly an ideal preparation. His natural understudy Wayne Bridge has played only three Champions League games this season, the last in December.

With that lunge by Makelele Chelsea's extraordinary season took yet another unexpected turn, although they are not alone when it comes to fears over major players. Nemanja Vidic, one of the cornerstones of Manchester United's success this season, was not even fit enough to train last night, along with Louis Saha. Amid the talk of history being made in Moscow – of Sir Alex Ferguson's legacy and Avram Grant's potential longevity – it was Cole and Vidic's injuries that their respective managers will have woken up worrying about this morning.

Click here for more pictures as the excitement builds in Moscow for the Champions League final

For Ferguson, this is the only stage left at which there is a doubt over the effect he has had on English football. Win tonight and he becomes the 16th manager in history who can say that he has won more than one European Cup; not only that, but Bob Paisley's record of three with Liverpool is within his sights. Yesterday he retold the tale of how, 25 years ago, he presented his opposing manager Alfredo Di Stefano with a bottle of whisky before Aberdeen's European Cup-Winners' Cup final against Real Madrid in Gothenburg.

He retold it because then Ferguson was a novice in European finals, cheekily trying to establish some kind of parity with an opposing manager whose reputation as a player eclipsed that of the young Scotsman whose team would win the game. The comparisons between the new boy Grant and his 66-year-old opponent tonight were obvious. "I remember that and I didn't shrivel that day," Ferguson said. "I handed him a bottle of whisky. This game is an opportunity for Avram Grant. It's a chance, a well-balanced game."

It used to be that Ferguson in a good mood was a cause for surprise on the eve of games such as these, but no longer – nowadays, he seems to be happy most of the time. Invited by a Uefa bureaucrat to say something to the media, the Scot spread his arms wide and said: "I love you all. I've come to spread peace." It is worth bearing in mind that, despite having turned 19 at the start of the Sixties, Ferguson has never grown his hair long or expressed an interest in protest music. Rather, his behaviour would suggest that he is, as he says, perfectly relaxed ahead of this game.

The question, as ever, is whether he lets his team loose on Chelsea and allows them to play or keeps it tight. There is a fundamental choice to be made on whether he picks Carlos Tevez as well as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo or selects the more defensively minded Park Ji Sung. "Tactics will come into it in some good part," Ferguson said. "Chelsea are a physically stronger team than most. They base a lot of their play on that strength. But we don't need to match that. We can concentrate on our movement and passing. I think we're good at that but we do have to pay attention to the strengths of Chelsea, of [Didier] Drogba, [Michael] Ballack and [Frank] Lampard."

And so to Grant, the man who has not even managed for an entire season in English football, never mind 22 years. He spoke to his players on the pitch with some animation after their training session and those in the club say that the grumbling about him has ceased within the inner circle of senior players – although the role of Steve Clarke in all this should not be underestimated. Most of those players have no time at all for Henk ten Cate, Grant's second assistant, but they will surely look to Clarke tonight for the traditional British call to arms before they step out on to the pitch.

On his relative inexperience, Grant had an answer: "It's the second time for him in the final of the Champions League. The first one he won. I'm in my first one in my first year. Not many managers have been in this final." The Chelsea staff believe that they can get Cole fit but if not Grant has to place his faith in Bridge, who must have been thinking of a move this summer, so far out of the first-team reckoning he has been.

Bizarrely, Grant was asked yesterday about the pictures of historical figures that hang in his office. Winston Churchill, Michael Jordan, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Anwar Al Sadat and Gandhi was the line-up and it was difficult to know what to make of this revelation. Heroes? Sources of inspiration? The leader of the Indian independence movement seems the closest fit to Grant, given his dedication to non-violent protest.

Frank Lampard spoke yesterday for the first time since the death of his mother, Pat, last month, although he did not take questions on that topic. "We've achieved a lot at Chelsea and been very close to this final," he said. "Every year we missed out has made us hungrier. The losing finalist is pretty much forgotten, so we're looking to win it." The point, however, is surely that whoever loses this time will not be forgotten – they will be the team that lost the first all-English Champions League final. And that will be remembered for ever.

Life of Ryan: Giggs' record-breaking Manchester United career in numbers

758

United appearances, equalling Sir Bobby Charlton's 35-year record

19

Major honours make him the most decorated player in English football history

15

Number of seconds it took him to score against Southampton in November 1995 – United's fastest Premier League goal

6,383

Days as a United professional

12

Consecutive seasons played in Champions League – a record

1999

The year he scored what supporters voted the club's greatest goal, against Arsenal in an FA Cup semi-final replay

2

One of only two players to have scored in every season of the Premier League (along with Gary Speed)

17

Age when making United debut, at home to Everton in March 1991

144

Goals scored for United in all competitions

6

Number of times included in the PFA team of the year

26

European goals for United

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