MANCHESTER UNITED were relieved last night when it emerged that Roy Keane had not broken his leg as first feared.

"We all feared the worst when we saw it," said England defender Gary Pallister. "It's a relief to find out it's just badly gashed, and nothing worse than that. It's a blow to Roy but he's a battler and he'll be back. He's as cheerful as anyone in the dressing room at the moment."

He needed 20 stitches in the gash and Alex Ferguson said: "It could have been worse.

"At the time we thought it was more serious. It's bad enough but it's not as bad as it could have been, but it will still keep him out until the new year."

United also had Nicky Butt on the treatment table with a bad knee injury and Gary Neville strained a hamstring. Ferguson added: "We'll have to see how Butt is when we get back to England but the three of them will miss Sunday's game at West Ham."

As regards Peter Schmeichel's save, Ferguson said: "It was a fantastic. Those are the kind of saves that make him the best in the world - that's where people like him earn their money.

"It was a very important time too because they had a five minute spell where they created two or three chances.

"It's very hard to place it, to say whether it's his best ever - but it was certainly one of the most important, that's for sure.

"We are pleased to get to the quarter finals, and now we are through I feel we can improve. The young players will get better.

"We are not far away and at times tonight we showed good penetration to our play. Giggs is an important part of that as he showed with his goal. It's very hard to handle him and his speed when he makes runs like that."

Giggs said: "I was very pleased with my goal and the way we played. We are all delighted to have at last got through to this stage."

Pallister commented: "I have had some great nights in my career but we all knew how important it was to get through this one. Especially the way, everyone had been building it up.