O'Shea: Quadruple is on - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

O'Shea: Quadruple is on

Manchester United are aiming for an unprecedented trophy quadruple - even if a mountain of injuries are threatening to knock them off the glory trail.

Two seasons ago, the Red Devils looked well set for a repeat of their 1999 Treble-winning campaign only for injuries to strike at just the wrong time, leaving Sir Alex Ferguson with a squad so exhausted it was unable to cope with the demands. But defender John O'Shea insists as long as the newly-crowned world champions have the chance of winning all four trophies, they will be going for it.

"We are going for all four," said the Republic of Ireland international.

Ferguson already knows he will be without five front-line defenders for Saturday's FA Cup tie with Tottenham and the possibility of a sixth - Gary Neville - missing out as well cannot be ruled out.

It means Darren Fletcher is almost certain to be asked to fill the right-back berth at the weekend, with Rafael's twin brother Fabio possibly in line for a senior debut too should Neville fail to make it.

Ferguson must also keep an element of freshness about his squad for Tuesday's Barclays Premier League trip to basement boys West Brom.

It is hardly the ideal backdrop to a knockout fixture, especially as Spurs have done far better in cup combat this term than they have in the weekly grind of their league campaign.

But O'Shea believes United are in a good position.

"It is something you hope for at the start of the season. There is confidence that these four trophies are all up for grabs. And when you have the players and belief we have, why not?

"Fingers crossed when the Champions League starts up again we will have a fully-fit squad. That is when we will start to dream about those sorts of things. For the moment we will just look at each game individually but it is going well for us so far."

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