Was It Fergie Who Withdrew Saha?

No doubt Sir Alex Ferguson will be relieved: Louis Saha pulled out of France's next too qualifiers.

A spokesman of the French national team confirmed that the United striker has left the training camp and will not be replaced by another player. He is sidelined by the same knee injury that kept him out of the Wigan game on Saturday.

I'd be surprised if his injury was really that serious. After all, yesterday it was believed that he would have no problem playing for France on Wednesday. I think that Fergie intervened in the matter, asking Saha to miss these games in order to ensure he's fit for our league clash with Aston Villa.

The boss will undoubtedly be relieved that Raymond Domenech won't get the chance to play a half-fit Louis Saha and risk another serious injury. Officially United had no problems with Saha going to international duty, they stressed that the national team's doctors are rather good at their job and know everything about Saha's injury history.

This is true, of course but I'd be very surprised if Fergie did not do everything to prevent his striker playing for France, seeing how many injuries he had picked up in the past while on international duty. Players who work with Sir Alex usually develop a history of missing internationals through minor injuries. The boss has great influence over his players and many of them would rather defy national team coaches or FIFA rules than confront him in this matter.

The perfect example for this is Ryan Giggs who pulled out of countless international friendlies though his injury history was nowhere near as shocking as Saha's. I'm now slightly paranoid about Saha, his ability to get injured in even the most harmless circumstances is often blowing my mind... so imagine Fergie whose temper is a lot shorter than mine!

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