Veron injury worries United
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Your support makes all the difference.Juan Sebastian Veron will miss Manchester United's Champions' League match against Boavista tonight amid fears that he may have broken a bone in his foot. United must beat Boavista to make sure of finishing top of Group A and go into the hat for the quarter-final draw as one of the top seeds.
Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy also stayed at home as the squad flew to Oporto yesterday, but Veron's injury is the most worrying. "Seba got a knock on the heel in the game against Bayern last week," said the United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. "It's pretty delicate so we are sending him for a scan and hopefully there is nothing broken."
Keane has a hip injury, while Van Nistelrooy, United's leading goalscorer, has a groin problem. Keane has remained in Manchester for treatment, but Van Nistelrooy's injury is not as serious and Ferguson has given him a few days off to return home. Ronny Johnsen, who has just returned from his latest knee injury, is a slight worry, but has travelled with the team.
The Boavista coach, Jaime Pacheco, said that his side are determined to beat United to show that they did not deserve to be eliminated from the tournament. "We want to go out with a win," he said. "It would be a grand finale, a fitting end."
Boavista, who trail second-placed Bayern Munich by four points, lost their chance for a quarter-final place when they drew at Nantes last week. "I think we could have qualified," Pacheco said. "We feel that Bayern weren't better than us."
Bayern Munich go into their game against Nantes without the defender Willy Sagnol, who will be out for at least a month after knee surgery. Sammy Kuffour, currently serving a six-match domestic suspension, should take his place.
The Bayern coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, also confirmed that the winger Hasan Salihamidzic, who has returned after four months out following knee surgery, should play some part.
* Sir Alex Ferguson has been awarded £7,500 libel damages in the High Court over an allegation in the David Mellor column in the London Evening Standard. Mellor had claimed Sir Alex was being paid £10,000 per match to give half-time and end-of-match interviews to ITV.
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