Becks plays down dressing-room incident

David Beckham has insisted it will be business as usual when Manchester United take on Juventus in the Champions League at Old Trafford tonight.

The midfielder has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week following Saturday’s freak dressing-room accident after United’s FA Cup loss to Arsenal.

Alex Ferguson lashed out at a football boot immediately after the defeat, hitting England captain Beckham just above his eye.

Much has been made of the incident and speculation has been rife surrounding Beckham’s reaction to the whole episode, with some even suggesting the affair could lead to a full-scale feud with his manager.

However, Beckham has assured all United fans that he has put the incident behind him.

In a statement issued by his management company SFX, he said: “I want to assure all Manchester United fans that there is complete harmony and focus as we prepare for the Juventus game.

“The dressing room incident was just one of those things – it’s all in the past now.”

A representative of SFX also revealed: “David did not want stitches at first, but two hours after the game, blood was still dripping from the wound and the club doctor visited David’s house and fixed two steri-strips to stop the bleeding.”

Former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson believes Ferguson was destined to “blow his top” after their FA Cup home defeat by Premiership rivals Arsenal.

Ferguson insisted the incident was “a freak of nature”, claiming he never intended to injure the midfielder, something his Old Trafford predecessor Atkinson concurs with.

He told the ITV News Channel: “I certainly agree with him, he couldn’t have done it if he had meant it, I mean Pele couldn’t have done it – and Pele was a better player than Alex.

“Things in dressing rooms – there is all sorts of things that go on at different times in dressing rooms, it can be a fiery, passionate place, there can be big arguments.

“Obviously what’s happened there is a complete freak, it really is, I’ve never heard or seen anything like that before.

“They’d just lost a key cup tie against their arch-rivals and there is no love lost between Arsenal and Manchester United and so he was going to blow his top.”

After a brief explanation yesterday, Ferguson preferred to look ahead to tonight’s clash with Juventus.