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Home > Sports > News > Reuters > Report

Complete harmony at United, says Beckham

February 19, 2003 18:46 IST

England captain David Beckham denied any rift with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson on Tuesday despite being injured by a flying football boot in the United dressing room.

Beckham suffered a cut above the eye when a furious Ferguson kicked a boot in the locker room after Saturday's 2-0 FA Cup fifth round defeat by Arsenal.

"I want to assure all Manchester United fans that there is complete harmony and focus as we prepare for the Juventus game," Sky TV reported Beckham as saying in a statement.

"The dressing room incident was just one of those things. It's all in the past now."

Earlier on Tuesday Ferguson denied that Beckham had needed stitches after the bust-up and said the club had to move on.

"Contrary to a lot of the reports, David did not have two stitches put in his head -- he had no stitches," Ferguson told a news conference before Wednesday's Champions League clash with Juventus.

"It was a graze and it was dealt with by the doctor, there was no problem. And we move on. And that's all there is to be said for it."

Ferguson did not say whether he had apologised for the incident, though Beckham was widely photographed with a sticking plaster above his left eye.

"The only reaction I have to the publicity it's created is that it was an incident which was freakish. If I tried it a hundred times or a million times it could not happen again.

"If I could do that (accurately), I would have carried on playing."

Ferguson, in charge at Old Trafford since 1986, made it clear he felt dressing room incidents should remain a secret and that he felt betrayed.

"First and foremost you have to stress that in 29 years as a coach whatever happens in a dressing room remains sacrosanct.

"There is no way I could ever betray the trust of the players, and take anything out of the dressing room, for whatever the benefit might be. It never works that way.

"Loyalty is always 100 percent, it can never be any less than that," Ferguson, 61, said.

Beckham and Ferguson have fallen out before, including an incident two seasons ago when Ferguson ordered Beckham from the training ground after he had missed a practice session to look after his sick son, Brooklyn.

He was also dropped for the next match.


© Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.



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