Larsson will go despite Saha knock

March 06, 2007

HENRIK LARSSON: Set to return to Sweden

SIR Alex Ferguson has ruled out any chance of extending Henrik Larsson's stay at Manchester United despite fresh injury concerns surrounding Louis Saha.

Larsson's load period with the Old Trafford outfit is due to end after the FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

However, the Swede's departure could leave a massive hole in United's striking department following confirmation Saha has been sent for a scan after picking up an injury in training this morning.

Ferguson refused to specify the nature of Saha's problem, although it is believed to be a muscular injury.

But, if the scan results are not good, it will leave Wayne Rooney as United's only fully fit striker for the Barclays Premiership encounter with Bolton on March 17 as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is already ruled out for the rest of the month after undergoing knee surgery.

Yet it seems not even a striker crisis will force Ferguson to abandon his stated desire for Larsson to return home next week.

Return

"Henrik Larsson definitely goes back to Sweden next week," said Ferguson.

"He will play in the European charity game on Tuesday, then he will go home.

"An agreement has been reached between myself, Henrik and the respective clubs. There is nothing we can do about that now, much as we would like to."

Larsson is a certain starter against Lille, with Ferguson confirming Saha will be an absentee.

"We are not 100% sure what the problem is," said the United boss.

"We have sent him for a scan to try and find out but he will not be fit for tomorrow."

Ferguson also revealed midfielder Darren Fletcher, who was initially sidelined for a fortnight after picking up an ankle knock in the FA Cup win at Reading last week, would now miss virtually the remainder of the season after the Scot's scan results were worse than initially feared.

"Darren has damaged his ankle ligaments," said Ferguson.

"He had a lot of swelling and we had to wait for it to go down before we could do the scan."

How much will the Reds miss these players? Have your say.

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Mick, Dublin (06/03/2007 at 15:16)

Nightmare! Well we've been lucky with injuries until now. How typical that they all arrive at once. If Saha is out long-term that's a disaster. Losing Ole for a month we could cope with, losing Ole AND Saha for any length of time could scupper our season. I know it's an unpopular opinion but losing Fletcher for most of the rest of the season is also a blow. Football, eh?

Mick, Dublin (06/03/2007 at 15:22)

Oh for crying out loud. According to Sky Sports, Scholesy is also a doubt. Unbelievable...

chris, oxford (06/03/2007 at 15:52)

If the news about Saha doesn't get your bum squeaking nothing will! Maybe now people will understand why some of us have been fretting about our strength in depth with Saha, Ole, Scholes and Fletcher out and Larsson on his bike (OK so Fletcher out shouldn't affect us but you know what I mean) which was more than likely going to happen at some point this season - we have been lucky to avoid major injuries so far, lets just hope that there is nothing too serious.

A Mancunian, Manchester (06/03/2007 at 16:28)

This was my biggest fear for the squad. Now they're dropping like flies!

Pepe (06/03/2007 at 16:28)

Ohhh no...Saha ...again. So Larsson and Rooney . Heinze for Evra, The positive thing is that Scholes is injured at the same time as his 3-match ban . Imagine an injury after the ban, a disaster.

OK Balders (06/03/2007 at 16:59)

It seems only a few hours ago some of us were predicting such an eventuality .... speak up now all those who had no concerns with the squad etc !!

Steve_, Manchester (06/03/2007 at 17:14)

Time to give young Dong a chance? Let's see how he fares with Rooney playing just behind him. With Scholes injured/suspended, Saha injured, Solskjaer injured, I think Giggs will be playing in the middle with Carrick and Park and Ronaldo out wide.

karma2007, rochdale,greater manchester (06/03/2007 at 17:20)

this isnt sounding good,bring in the young gladiators.
Well id give them a go if we are struggling.

Kevin, Tralee, Eire (06/03/2007 at 18:31)

Mick, just shows how thin on the ground we actually are when we bemoan the loss of DF from the team. Hopefully Saha just misses the game against Lille & Boro & is firing on all cylinders for the Bolton game. Does anyone else think that maybe SAF doesn't rate todays Henke as opposed to the Henke of 2 or 3 years ago & is maybe happy to send him to his Helsingborgs retirement home? I have been disappointed with his overall contribution since he came & reckon even a 90% fit Smudger could be just as effective.

Utd-For-Life, marseille ex-stretford (06/03/2007 at 21:18)

oh dear....... this has been saha's best season at the club so far, but he's still managed to miss so many games through injury, very worrying. I think fergie definately needs to get a striker this summer, as no matter how much i rate saha, he's no reliable. For now though, Giggs or ronaldo may have to play up front, with park on the wings. failing that, smudger and dong should be able to do a job. Carrick and oshea in the middle and the rest of the team picks itself. No panick...just yet. Fletch was a blow though..... how we going to cope!!!!

COLIN, CANADA, Canada (06/03/2007 at 22:18)

Well no more fears about JOS and Fletchewr in the midfield. Now we are down to Carrick and Giggs or Carrick and JOS or am I missing someone? Up front we can always play Ronny or Smitty when he is ready. I think we are in for a long three weeks.Having a solid back four helps.

COLIN, CANADA, Canada (06/03/2007 at 22:25)

Kevin, I commented on another thread to Alias that I thought Larsson's value to the team is now over rated. Not even a factor against Liverpool so why go back on our agreement and try and keep him. Smitty has got to be close and should be on the bench for Lille. Hopefully we will be in a position to give him a run. He and Roo are a couple of battlers so while a big fan of Saha's I think we can cope. Scholes injured for Lille is the biggest blow.

Alias Smith, over the moon (06/03/2007 at 23:45)

Lots of gnashing of teeth here about squad strength etc. As far as I can tell, Scholes and Evra will be fit to play against Lille. The only significant absence will therefore be Saha, which means Rooney and Larsson up top. After that, we have to cope with the absence of Scholes to suspension, Larsson to Sweden and Fletcher plus maybe Saha to injury. In the worst case, O'Shea comes into midfield alongside Carrick, Ronaldo partners Rooney in attack and Park plays right wing. Not ideal but in fact better than almost any other team could manage without 3 or 4 of their starting XI and definitely strong enough to see off Boro, Bolton and Blackburn. After that, Scholes will be back as hopefully will Saha and Ole. It's important not to panic.

arletta red, USA (07/03/2007 at 05:43)

I've said it over and over, beyond the first eleven we are suspect. Here we go, could be out of the Champions League and the FA Cup all in 7 days. But don't worry cause next summer we got lots of cash to spend and yeah right. How come Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham and Millwall pry away players and all we can get is Carricka and a 2nd rate keeper? Could it be that we have little money to spend, and no big names want to live in the north of England, when they can live near London. Hey I love Man U , but there are other places I would live.

bobbydazzler (07/03/2007 at 09:17)

alias your right jos paired with mc is ok compared to the ultimate nightmare of him being paired with df.

TMUF, Manchester (07/03/2007 at 09:18)

See now look what all the negativity has brought us! Seriously I agree with Alias, we have the players to see us through this. Would be a disaster if anymore get injured so fingers crossed. Still our squad have done better then most teams in the world this season.

Mick, Dublin (07/03/2007 at 10:23)

Just to clarify. I am worried about these injuries and suspensions. But I don't think that's a reflection of our squad being particularly thin. I don't think there's a team in the Prem whose fans wouldn't be anxious if they lost a first-choice striker and another striker from the squad at the same time as losing their first-choice attacking midfielder and another central midfielder (like Chavski losing Lampard, Drogba, Kalou and Mikel). Add this to Larsson leaving, some uncertainty over whether Smith is back to his best and losing arguably the best left-back in the league this season. And this all happens in the space of three days, in the run-up to a MASSIVE European game against a team that are hell-bent on knocking us out of the competition. Jaysus, is it any wonder we're all bricking it!?! The fact that we should be able to cope with this crisis (as Alias points out, we have a number of options, including Ronnie as second striker, with Park and Giggs on the wings) says volumes about our strength in depth and is the difference between me feeling very nervous and throwing a complete wobbler!

chris, oxford (07/03/2007 at 10:53)

I would still like to see Park play in an attacking CM role because of his energy (exactly the reasons people want us to buy OH) which would also leave Giggs and Ronaldo in their natural positions. DF being injured could be a blessing (not for the obvious reason) because it may make Fergie try something different - Carrick and O'Shea in the middle wouldn't scare anybody because neither of them are particularly attack minded bar the odd foray into the opposition penalty area.

chris, oxford (07/03/2007 at 11:52)

bobbydazzler (07/03/2007 at 12:20)

chris exactly 2 seasons ago park played attacking cm for psv against milan and had a blinder i would like to see him given a game there too.

OK Balders (07/03/2007 at 12:31)

spot on Chris. Check the games when Carrick & Jos have been in CM. Spurs H, scraped a 1.0, but we were ordinary at best. Benfica and copenhagen A ...mmm ! Wigan away first half ...mmm! Reading H - i missed so can't comment but what i do know is i don't want to go away from OT in the PL with two CM who lollop about !!

chris, oxford (07/03/2007 at 12:42)

It has to be better than playing Park LW eh Bobby?

Demo, Glossop (07/03/2007 at 16:19)

my only concern with playing park as attacking cm is his lack of composure when nearing the oppositions penalty area. Surely an attacking midfielder should be able to shoot on target? i do like park tho more on the wing

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