Soccer:Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson could be without eight senior players for tomorrow's Champions League encounter with Basle at Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney is expected to miss out with the hamstring injury that sidelined him for Saturday’s draw with Stoke and he was among a long list of players who did not train at United’s Carrington HQ this morning.
Also absent was Rooney’s strike partner Javier Hernandez, who limped off early in the Stoke game with a dead leg.
If Hernandez does not recover in time to face the Swiss outfit, Ferguson will be choosing between Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and fit-again Danny Welbeck in his attack.
The problems do not stop there for United, with central defenders Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (groin) and Nemanja Vidic (calf) also missing training.
That is almost certain to mean Rio Ferdinand lining up alongside youngster Phil Jones tomorrow evening, with Antonio Valencia again pressed into service as an emergency right back as Rafael (shoulder) is out with a long-term problem.
Fellow long-term casualties Tom Cleverley (foot) and Darron Gibson (ankle) have long since been ruled out.
United drew their opening match with Benfica in Lisbon a fortnight ago, while Basle are group leaders after defeating Romanian side Otelul Galati in their first game.
Meanwhile, Ferguson has blamed television schedules for creating “ridiculous situations” for teams playing in Europe.
The Scot said the vast amount of money pumped into the game by broadcasters means clubs have lost control of their fixture lists.
“When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price. Television is God at the moment,” he told BBC North West Tonight in an interview to be screened this evening.
“It shows itself quite clearly because when you see the fixture lists come out now, they can pick and choose whenever they want the top teams on television.
“You get some ridiculous situations when you’re playing on Wednesday night in Europe and then at lunchtime the following Saturday.
“You ask any manager if they would pick that themselves and there’d be no chance.”
