Fergie turns to young guns

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 Barclaycard 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.

PROVISIONAL SQUAD: Barthez, Carroll, Ricardo, G Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, O’Shea, Beckham, P Neville, Scholes, Butt, Giggs, van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer, Forlan, Roche, Richardson, Pugh, Fletcher.