Veron ruled out of United clash

Juan Sebastian Veron has been ruled out of Manchester United’s crunch Champions League tie with Real Madrid in the Bernabeu tomorrow.

The Argentinian international has failed to recover from the knee-ligament injury he picked up against Leeds at the beginning of the month and it is thought Alex Ferguson could rule him out of the vital Premiership trips to Newcastle and Arsenal in a bid to ensure he is fit for the second leg of the quarter-final on April 23.

The only other absentee from the flight to the Spanish capital was Phil Neville, who is suspended after picking up his third booking of the competition in the 2-0 defeat by Deportivo La Coruna, which wrapped up the second group phase.

Provisional squad: Barthez, Carroll, Ricardo, G Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O’Shea, Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Keane, Giggs, Van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer, Forlan, Roche, Richardson, Pugh, Fletcher.