Champions League: Fergie shrugs off injury worries

Alex Ferguson is confident Manchester United can cope with the possible loss of £120m (€196m) worth of midfield talent for their Champions League return against Deportivo La Coruna.

United will be without Roy Keane, Juan Veron, Paul Scholes and maybe David Beckham for the quarter-final second leg at Old Trafford next Wednesday.

Veron had already been ruled out with Achilles trouble, while Keane is sidelined for four to six weeks after injuring his hamstring in United’s 2-0 first-leg win at the Riazor Stadium.

Scholes is suspended following his third booking of the competition, while Beckham could also be absent after being stretchered off with an ankle injury in stoppage time.

However, a defiant Ferguson said: ‘‘We’ve got a pool of players to cope with this and we have to cope.

‘‘I’m disappointed with Roy Keane’s injury and Paul Scholes’ suspension and I think he’s very unlucky Paul Scholes.’’

Beckham appeared to be in agony after being caught late by Diego Tristan, whom Ferguson felt deserved a red rather than a yellow card.

Ferguson claims it is too soon to tell how badly injured the England skipper’s left ankle is and he was due to have an X-ray when the team arrived back in Manchester later today.

The injuries to Keane and Beckham plus Scholes’ suspension took some of the shine off what was United’s best European night since they lifted the European Cup in May 1999.

Beckham gave them the lead with an exquisite chip from over 30 yards out - 15 minutes before Ruud van Nistelrooy netted his ninth Champions League goal of the season on 41 minutes to become the competition’s leading scorer.

It was United’s first win over a Spanish side in Spain at the 13th attempt and Gary Neville was thrilled by the result.

‘‘I think at times we were excellent,’’ he said. ‘‘The one thing you have to do when you play in these quarter-finals, and we failed to do it in the last two years, is score two goals in the away leg.

‘‘We didn’t score in Bayern Munich and we didn’t even score one at Real Madrid.

‘‘If you don’t score a goal away from home in the away leg you are going to struggle because the opposition are likely to pinch one at Old Trafford, which teams have done in the past.

‘‘We realised that we had slipped up in those away legs in the last two years.

‘‘Scoring those two goals was the most important thing for us.

‘‘We knew we had to be positive and right from the off we dominated the game and got the early goal.’’

Deportivo won 3-2 at Old Trafford back in October, but coach Javier Irureta feels overturning a 2-0 deficit may be beyond them this time.

‘‘Nothing is definite in football and if we get an early goal who knows?’’ he said.

‘‘But it is going to be very, very difficult.’’