FERGUSON FEARS EURO BURN OUT

Last updated : 10 May 2004 By editor

"With the European Championships on this summer, we would have preferred not to have to qualify for the Champions League."

"But the good news is that we are in the qualifying round. It could be worse - there are a lot of clubs who won't be in the qualifying round, and five years ago we were in the qualifying round and won the European Cup. It does present problems in terms of how we view the amount of rest players are going to get.

"I could have eight players away - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Saha, Silvestre, Cristiano Ronaldo and possibly four, maybe five, English players. I would normally look to give them a month's rest.

"If England get to the final, for us it will be a nightmare. In another sense we will be delighted if they get to the final, as it would be a major achievement, and we would just have to accept that.

"If that happens, I will probably just arrange a couple of games that week and put them into football training. But they won't be available for August 11."