Suffering Saha hits back over series of injuries

Manchester United's stars stepped out for their Christmas knees-up on Monday full of festive spirit.

Hot on the heels of their 1-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes et al arrived by team coach for their Christmas lunch at the Linen restaurant at Manchester's 235 casino.

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Although they adopted a more sobering attire than Chelsea's fancy dress, they tucked into salmon and roast turkey before heading off to their favourite haunt, The Grapes pub, and a city centre hotel.

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However, one player conspicuous by his absence was striker Louis Saha, who hit out on Monday at suggestions he is psychologically weak but admitted he is not prepared to play unless 100 per cent fit.

Saha faces an uncertain future at Old Trafford after struggling with a succession of knee injuries. Although Saha is fit and available, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson fears the player will never reach the levels he achieved before he paid £12million to sign him from Fulham four years ago, believing he sometimes needs convincing he is fit.

But Saha said: 'At United, I have had an incredible amount of bad luck. But that does not explain everything. Playing all the time take its toll on the body.

'My game is based on speed, quick movements and changes of direction. It's very demanding for the body. For a long time, I had an injury on my left knee. I changed the way I ran and I injured my right knee. But I never refused to play

'Every time I missed a game I was not able to play. For sure, before playing again, I was a bit anxious. Every player feels that. But it did not go further than that. People are ill-informed. I had six pieces of cartilage in my knee. Can you say this is psychological?

'Sometimes I would take part in training during the week and feel good and then drop out at the weekend. But you can explain that easily. My knee could support short training exercises, but not the intensity of a game. Should I have played without being 100 per cent fit? That would have been ridiculous.'

Saha was on the bench at Anfield and has been given only a handful of chances. But he believes he is ready to contribute. He said: 'I never had any problem with Sir Alex Ferguson. Now, I just want to play. To avoid a new setback, I do everything possible: yoga, acupuncture and osteopathy and it's starting to pay off.'

United have contacted Bayern Munich to register their interest in right back Willy Sagnol because Gary Neville is still struggling to regain fitness after an eight-month absence and Wes Brown is stalling on a new contract.