Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson could be without eight senior players for Tuesday's Champions League clash with Basle at Old Trafford.
Striker Wayne Rooney is expected to miss out with the hamstring injury that sidelined him for Saturday's draw with Stoke City and he was among a long list of players who did not train at United's Carrington HQ on Monday morning.
Also missing was Rooney's strike partner Javier Hernandez, who hobbled off early in the Stoke game with a dead leg.
If Hernandez does not make progress in time to face the Swiss outfit, Ferguson will be choosing between Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and fit-again Danny Welbeck in his attack.
But the problems do not stop there for United. Central backs Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (groin) and Nemanja Vidic (calf) also did not train.
That is almost certain to mean Rio Ferdinand lining up alongside new signing Phil Jones on Tuesday evening, with winger Antonio Valencia again pressed into service as an emergency right-back as Rafael (shoulder) is out with a long-term injury problem.
Fellow long-term casualties mid fielder Tom Cleverley (foot) and Darron Gibson (ankle) have long since been ruled out.
United drew their opening match with Portuguese outfit Benfica in Lisbon a fortnight ago, while Basle are group leaders after defeating Romanian side Otelul Galati in their first game.
0 comments:
Post a Comment