Alex Ferguson has pledged to fire his young guns into Champions League battle against Swiss surprise package Basle at Old Trafford tomorrow. With a quarter-final berth already assured and a must-win Premiership trip to Aston Villa looming on Saturday, Ferguson will not want to take a chance with any of his established stars who are less than 100% fit.
With Roy Keane (hamstring), Juan Sebastian Veron (knee), Mikael Silvestre (knee) and Quinton Fortune (groin) all missing, Kieran Richardson and Danny Pugh are among the rookies who will hope to face Christian Gross' men.
Laurent Blanc could play some part after recovering from a calf injury – he may join Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer set to start up front.
Ferguson revealed that Keane and Veron would be out of action for up to four weeks and are likely to miss the Premiership matches against Aston Villa and Fulham. "Keane and Veron are the more serious of the injuries I have," Ferguson told reporters. "They will be (sidelined for) three to four weeks."
"The thing that is a little bonus is the international fortnight from March 22 to April 5, which takes a lot of time away in terms of recovery. We have two league matches and between times a European tie and I think they will be back for the Liverpool match (April 5)," the Scot added.
Filed by James Boylan.
