RYAN Giggs will miss Manchester United's trip to Norwich after suffering a hamstring strain.
The Welsh winger picked up the injury just six minutes into last Saturday's draw with Blackburn, and the Reds are now racing to get him fit for the FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle in Cardiff.
Darren Fletcher will also sit the game out as he recovers from a knee injury sustained in the derby against City.
Sir Alex Ferguson must decide whether to stick with misfiring striker Ruud van Nistelrooy or go with Alan Smith. Louis Saha could also feature after returning from a knee injury.
Van Nistelrooy is yet to score for United since his return in February, and his place is under threat.
Skipper Roy Keane may not be risked as a booking at Carrow Road will rule him out of next week's FA Cup semi-final.
Meanwhile Nigel Worthington is set to make several changes to his Barclays Premiership basement club.
With no fresh injury concerns, and following a run of five straight defeats, Denmark captain Thomas Helveg is set to come in at right-back for Marc Edworthy and Moroccan Youssef Safri into midfield for Gary Holt.
On-loan Arsenal midfielder David Bentley is fit following some 10 weeks out with a knee injury and is expected to be included in the squad.
Darren Huckerby (calf), Mattias Jonson (virus) and Simon Charlton (shin) have all trained this week and will be in contention.
Norwich (from): Green, Helveg, Fleming, Shackell, Drury, Stuart, Safri, Francis, Huckerby, Ashton, McKenzie, Bentley, Jonson, Edworthy, Charlton, Holt, Henderson, Doherty, McVeigh, Ward.
Manchester United (from): Howard, Carroll, G Neville, P Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Heinze, O'Shea, Fortune, Ronaldo, Keane, Scholes, van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Saha, Smith, Kleberson, Bellion.
Norwich v United - the stats
Latest form
Norwich: L L L L L
United: W W D W D
Head to head
Aug 21, United 2 Norwich 1
Top scorers
Norwich: Francis 7, Huckerby 6, McKenzie 4
United: Rooney 9 Scholes 8
Referee
Howard Webb: His first United game recently in FA Cup at Southampton passed without incident.
Key opponent
Darren Huckerby: Ex-City winger can always cause a few headaches.
Prediction
Norwich 0 United 2
Would you stick with Ruud? Have your say.
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Comments
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5-0 to United simple as that.
Watching Ruud come off for Smith last Sat - I didn't even applaud him leaving the pitch.
He's lost hs spark - lets hope a few at Norwich will get him back into the firing range for the FAC.
I hope Kleberson is given a start and that he does well enough to cement his place in United's midfield. He deserves nothing less after so many frustrations and injuries since he came over. He is also one of the few players in the present squad to take on the role of play-maker.
Giggs injured again. Same old story, he needs to be replaced.
And NO, I would not stick with Ruud up front. He isn`t worthy a place on the bench either.
Drop Ruud, Smith in with Rooney, United 4-0.
Hiya.. Just thought I'd have a look and see if the quality of contributor and comment had improved - it seems to have somewhat. Anyway, although the best we can hope for is second and the FA Cup as a bonus I still feel that this season has been better than last. Tomorrow sees us tramp over the tops and across Lincolnshire for a weekend in Norwich and hopefully the result we want. "Is this the way to Norwich City" (apologies to Peter Kay). Keep it going Reds, ignore the season ticket price hike, all the Glazer talk, stadium plans, transfer talk etc and get on with it. MUFC OK..
As a tongue in cheek aside to all this - does anyone fancy joining me in offering Liverpool fans free flights to Turin for thier return match v Juve? I reckon the more of them there at the mercy of the Juventus fans the better ;o) !!
Good to hear your still alive Head to toe. I will certainly join you in offering the scousers a flight to Turin. I went there myself when we beat them 3-0 and even in the centre before the match it was hostile and unwelcoming to say the least. We were warned on the coach at the airport but I still didnt imagine people so unpleasent!!! Bottle of urine anyone??? Save your giros scousers the flights on us!!! Dont fancy your chances much on the pitch or off it!
same old rubbish football 1-0 to united
Personally, I'd like to see Smith up-front with Rooney and Ronaldo playing off him with Kleberson floating behind those 3 trying to pick out passesand 2 screening midfielders protecting the defence, probably O'Shea and Fortune (not my ideal choice but I think Keane might be rested to avoid the risk of him getting a yellow card and missing the semi). Give Ruud the shock of sitting on the bench and maybe it'll make him just that big hungrier when they bring him on.
Don't even have a clue what the Line up will be, with all the focus on Ruud this week we could see him benched or given a chance to see if he's up for the Semi against Mary Poppins and the rampant shirt ripping love-muppets! You'd think we could beat Nicey Nice Norwich easily? COME ON!!!
BECKHAM supplied Ruud. Rondo doesn't seem to.Giggs can be fantastic but his hamstring won't take it when he steps up a gear.Silvestre supplied crosses when he was wing-back but he wants to be centre half.Gary Neville is the only improvement in cross-supply.Rooney has been fantastic Rondo needs to mature enough to see the big picture.Cantona they said was the brain of the side.We need a brain!
All I hope is for the team to play high tempo football for once. The last time we did for a whole match we murdered the Arse. Liverpool made Juve look average for 30 mins by doing this. I really hope Saha is actually fit this time and if so should start and Rossi on the bench. As for the Italians even in Milan I noticed a level of hatred i hadnt seen b4. As someone else mentioned earlier the minute AC scored "fans" from the upper tiers urinated on the Man Utd fans. HT2 good to see u back!
Norwich should be the ideal match for Ruud to get back into the goals. Believe me by the end of the season he will be our top scorer again. With both Giggs and Keane missing, this seems like a good time to field a younger midfield that can do a lot of running and maintain a faster tempo than usual. With Ruud & Roo up front, back them up with a quartet of Ronaldo, Smith, Kleberson, & Scholes and let's see what they can do. I think Kleb is the ideal man to take control of midfield, but only at the expense of Keane. It generally appears as if Keane bullies the new midfielders a lot, inhibiting them from expressing themselves. It happened with Veron who was the type of player who had to be in total control in order to produce his best form. But when you have Keane impatiently running around demanding the ball it negated Veron's special ability. Will Fergie ever realize that that's what Kleberson needs to flourish?
WHERE IS ROSSI?DROP VAN N.R IS MEANS THAT WE CAN TRY PUT SAHA,ALAN,ROONI UP TO SCORE.I THINKS IS BETTER........PLS SHOW US A GOOD GAME...BEST WISH!
ha