Knee injury halts van Nistelrooy's move to United

Manchester United's plans to shatter the British record transfer fee to sign Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy have collapsed after the player failed a medical this afternoon.

PSV Eindhoven agreed the £18 million fee last week for the 23 year old who has been the top scorer in Holland for the past two seasons. In the current campaign Nistelrooy fired 29 goals before a knee injury last month held up his career for two months. He has yet to regain match fitness after the knee ligament strain but is on course to be part of Holland's squad for the Euro 2000 finals.

United set a press conference for this afternoon to parade their new striker whose arrival prompted United chairman Sir Martin Edwards to question if any player was worth the massive amount the new Premiership champions are paying to land van Nistelrooy. The Dutchman attended the 3-2 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford yesterday with speculation growing that United would start to off load players - and a top name striker - to fund the transfer.

Edwards confirmed this earlier today by telling television interviewers that United's transfer money for the summer was taken up with van Nistelrooy's move and to sign any more players the club would have to sell.

United are owned by a plc whose shareholders are reluctant to bankroll massive transfer fees and wages that eat into profits that can be used as share dividends. The club have a wages policy that will see van Nistelrooy earn £42,000 a week with captain Roy Keane the top earners. Plans to sign Rivaldo last season were frustrated by the board's reluctance to pay big wages to the players.

Now van Nistelrooy's knee injury has thrown his planned transfer into reverse. PSV said the striker would not be fit until at least mid-May and probably later. The injury was thought to be healed but United are to freeze the player's transfer until he can complete the medical tests on the knee joint and muscles. The player has a reputation in Holland for being injury-prone and United were furious when the PSV player spoke to reporters in Holland to confirm his move to England last week.

United had hoped to keep the transfer a near secret until they were ready to announce a successful deal but van Nistelrooy was speaking to the media before the club were able to reign him in and the failure to pass a medical test today makes United's caution seem justified. Despite this their lack of control over the biggest transfer in British football history hands the club another public relations error and United now have to delay any transfer for van Nistelrooy according to club spokesman David Gill. The striker will stay at United until the end of the week waiting to complete the medical tests. Talks with PSV and the player have been completed according to Gill and he is set to sign for United. Bookmakers already rate him as the favourite to be top goalscorer in the Premiership next season.

Parma AC and Juventus both monitored van Nistelrooy's progress with PSV but recent Premiership interest has been led by United after Chelsea and Arsenal both ran the rule over the tall front runner.