Lippi running out of players

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Groups C and D: Juventus coach Marcello Lippi has revealed he may have to plead with UEFA to call off tonight's showdown with Manchester United if any more of his players are ruled out with illness.

The Italians have been struck by a 'flu virus that has swept through the club and forced Lippi to fill up his squad with raw youngsters.

The Italian champions left a quintet of key players in Turin nursing high temperatures and cancelled yesterday's training session at Old Trafford with 'flu sweeping through the squad.

That is likely to force Lippi to field only four substitutes tonight.

Lippi also has a bout of the sniffles having contracted the virus that forced him to leave Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Birindelli, Gianluca Zambrotta, Marco Di Vaio and Marcelo Salas in Italy.

Added to that sick list are Alessandro Del Piero (thigh injury), Croat Igor Tudor (ankle) and Mark Iuliano and Ruben Olivera, who have also gone down with fevers.

While Lippi remains confident that he will be able to field a side with six players definitely out, any more cry-offs would result in a request for a postponement.

"I'm going to have to wait and see how things develop overnight and whether three or four more of my players develop 'flu symptoms," Lippi said.

Not that Alex Ferguson was publicly encouraged by his opponents' headaches. "There's always a worry that, when you play a weakened team, you drop your own physical and mental preparations," he said. "We cannot afford to fall into that trap.

"Manchester United against Juventus is the biggest club game in the world. It doesn't matter who has 'flu, we are still playing the name and we have to do our job.

"I always remember playing Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final here when they were apparently 'all dying'. But they flew in Jurgen Kohler at midnight the night before the game, he played and they won."

In Group C, Real Madrid will try to play their way out of trouble when they take on Borussia Dortmund at home.

Real won the European Cup for the ninth time last season, but they are in danger of missing out on the quarter-finals this year after a defeat away by AC Milan and a disappointing draw at home to Lokomotiv Moscow dropped them to bottom of their group.

PROBABLE TEAMS

MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez; Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre; Beckham/Butt, Solskjaer, Keane, Scholes, Giggs; van Nistelrooy.

JUVENTUS: Chimenti; Thuram, Montero, Ferrara, Pessotto; Camoranesi, Conte, Davids, Nedved; Trezeguet, Zalayeta.