Barthez makes Stuttgart trip

Fabien Barthez flew out with the Manchester United squad for their Champions League trip to Stuttgart today despite speculation linking him with a move to Paris St Germain.

The French keeper has been frozen out of the first-team so far this season and has not even appeared on the bench as Tim Howard has held off the challenge of Roy Carroll to his starting place.

United insist there has been no contact with PSG even though their president Francis Graille has said he is hopeful of pushing through a deal with Old Trafford chief executive David Gill.

Also on board the flight to Germany was Barthez’s international team-mate Mikael Silvestre, who has recovered from the knee injury which kept him out of Saturday’s 4-1 win at Leicester.

Silvestre is expected to partner Rio Ferdinand in central defence tomorrow night, which would leave Sir Alex Ferguson deciding whether to play John O’Shea or Quinton Fortune at left-back as he looks to maintain the momentum gained by the 5-0 win over Panathinaikos.

Long-term casualties Kleberson (dislocated shoulder), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (knee) and Wes Brown (knee) are all still missing.

PROVISIONAL SQUAD: Howard, Carroll, Barthez, G Neville, P Neville, Silvestre, Ferdinand, O’Shea, Fortune, Butt, Solskjaer, Ronaldo, Keane, Djemba-Djemba, Giggs, Van Nistelrooy, Forlan, Fletcher, Richardson