MANCHESTER, England, March 2 (Reuters) - Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be out of action for most of March after undergoing minor knee surgery.
The 34-year-old Norway international only returned to regular action this season after the best part of three years on the sidelines with knee problems.
United manager Alex Ferguson told reporters on Friday: 'That was done a few days ago. It was good timing with the international (break) coming up.
'It gave us the opportunity to get the thing done and get it cleaned out. It's nothing serious.'
Solskjaer, who has scored 10 goals this season, will miss United's Champions League second leg against Lille next week, an FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough and a league fixture against Bolton Wanderers, but should be available for the visit of Blackburn Rovers on March 31.
Midfielder Darren Fletcher will also miss United's game at Liverpool on Saturday and will be out for two weeks with an ankle injury.
United will go to Anfield with nothing less than the aim of winning and doing it in the attacking style that has epitomised the Reds’ season so far.
Sir Alex Ferguson will not compromise his team’s style of play by employing counter-attacking tactics or defensive stubbornness in attempt to achieve a positive result from one of the Reds most important remaining Premiership matches.
“It’s a massive game, a game which could shape the title race,” he acknowledges. “There’s plenty of speculation about what will happen if we win or if we don’t win.
“The important thing is to go there and play the way we have all season and enjoy it. It’s a rivalry which encompasses history and geography, we know it’s going to be a hard game but they will look upon it as a hard game too.”
Victory would take United, temporarily at least, 12 points clear of second-placed Chelsea. But with Liverpool being one of the toughest of the Reds’ ten remaining fixtures, it begs the question whether a draw would have to be seen as a good result.
But Sir Alex isn’t looking at it that way. “You can’t judge that because you don’t know where it would take you,” he said. “There are ten games left and you could look back on it at the end of the season and say it was a good point, but you might think it was a bad one.
“The important thing is to go there to win, and that’s exactly what we will do. We won’t be relying on defending all day and hoping to get a break away to win it or even sneak a 0-0 draw. We’ve got where we are by playing the way we want to play, and we’ll continue that on Saturday.”
The kind of defiant determination Sir Alex speaks of was plainly evident against Fulham, when Cristiano Ronaldo’s 89th minute intervention spoke volumes of United’s never-say-die attitude.
“We got through the match against Fulham simply because of the character, resilience and match-winners in our team saw to it that we won. They are the characteristics we take with us on Saturday.”
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