Ferguson adamant Larsson will leave

Alex Ferguson has ruled out any chance of extending Henrik Larsson's stay at Manchester United despite fresh injury concerns surrounding Louis Saha.

Larsson's loan period with the Premiership league leaders is due to end after the FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

However, the Swede's departure could leave a massive hole in United's striking department following confirmation Saha has been sent for a scan after picking up an injury in training this morning.

If the scan results are not positive it will leave Wayne Rooney as United's only fully fit striker for the encounter with Bolton on March 17th as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is already ruled out for the rest of the month having had knee surgery.

"Henrik Larsson definitely goes back to Sweden next week," said Ferguson. "He will play in the European charity game on Tuesday, then he will go home.

"An agreement has been reached between myself, Henrik and the respective clubs. There is nothing we can do about that now, much as we would like to."

Larsson is a certain starter against Lille tomorrow, with Ferguson confirming Saha will be an absentee.

"We are not 100 per cent sure what the problem is," said the United boss.  "We have sent him for a scan to try and find out but he will not be fit for tomorrow, which is a blow for us."

Ferguson also revealed midfielder Darren Fletcher, who was initially sidelined for a fortnight after picking up an ankle knock in the FA Cup win at Reading last week, would now miss virtually the remainder of the season after the Scot's scan results were worse than initially feared.

"Darren has damaged his ankle ligaments," said Ferguson. "He had a lot of swelling and we had to wait for it to go down before we could do the scan.

"Unfortunately, the news was not good, which is a bad blow for the lad because it is a crucial time of the season for him and us."

Ferguson also has doubts over Patrice Evra, who was only able to play a minor part in training today, and Paul Scholes, who picked up a knock at Anfield before his dismissal but will no doubt be anxious to play as he is about to start a three-match domestic ban.