Manchester United's assistant manager Carlos Queiroz has apologised to Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor for comments he made on Saturday.

Queiroz was angered by the treatment of Cristiano Ronaldo during United's FA Cup defeat by Portsmouth and said referees were not doing anything to stop "the Taylors of this game" using rough treatment to stop the flair players.

Taylor was sent off for the tackle that broke Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva's leg last month.

The Portuguese could still find himself in trouble with the FA, however, after other remarks about referee Martin Atkinson, including calling him a "robber".

"I am deeply sorry if my comments, made when emotions were running high after the Portsmouth game, were misconstrued," Queiroz told United's website ( www.manutd.com ) yesterday.

"Everyone at Manchester United knows that Martin Taylor is not that type of player. All I sought to say was that in the modern game, because of its speed, we need to have more vigilance on mistimed tackles.

"I apologise for any upset my remarks may have caused."

The FA is also looking at comments made by United manager Alex Ferguson about Atkinson and English referees chief Keith Hackett after the 1-0 defeat by Portsmouth.

"The game was decided by the decision not to give us a penalty," Ferguson told Sky Sports television at the time, referring to Sylvain Distin's early body-check on Ronaldo.

"They (Portsmouth) had great confidence to hang on knowing the referee was on their side.

"Managers get sacked because of things like that and he's going to referee a game next week."

The FA have confirmed they are looking at comments made by Ferguson and Queiroz.