Roy Keane will be out of action for up to a month after suffering a hamstring injury in Manchester United’s 2-0 Champions League victory against Deportivo la Coruna in Spain tonight.
Keane fell awkwardly under a challenge towards the end of the first half and immediately signalled to the bench that he could take no further part in the match.
"It's a hamstring injury but I thought it was worse than that, his knee or something ," United manager Alex Ferguson told ITV.
"So he is probably out for three or four weeks."
Keane, who had to be carried to the dressing room by two members of the United staff, is likely to miss league games against Leicester City, Chelsea and Ipswich Town, as well as the return against Deportivo.
He will also miss the Republic of Ireland's World Cup warm-up against the United States in Dublin on April 17th but will hope to be back for another Landsdowne Road friendly against Nigeria on May 16th.
A magnificent 30-metre strike from David Beckham and a tap-in for Ruud van Nistelrooy secured the 2-0 victory for Manchester United.
Beckham conjured his goal out of nothing after 15 minutes and striker Van Nistelrooy added the second four minutes before the break when he turned in a Mikael Silvestre cross.
Deportivo tried hard to fight back with Diego Tristan and Sergio both going close on several occasions but United's Ryan Giggs also missed two opportunities to put the tie out of reach.
Reigning European champions, Bayern Munich, came from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 in their quarter-final first leg in Germany.
Claudio Pizarro struck with two minutes to go after Bayern captain Stefan Effenberg, who had just missed a penalty, drew the home side level just six minutes earlier.
Zinedine Zidane's pin-point passing gave the home side all kinds of problems throughout the first half and Cameroon midfielder Geremi put Real Madrid ahead in the 12th minute.
However, Bayern put on a dazzling display of strength in the second half to overturn Real Madrid's lead.