CRUEL injuries are threatening to block one of the most eagerly-awaited knockout confrontations since Achilles met Hector on the battle-plain of Troy.

In the red corner is Manchester United's talismanic skipper Roy Keane, while in the blue corner of FA Cup surprise package Millwall is the Lions' player-manager Dennis Wise.

Both internationals, both packed with FA Cup experience and both boasting - or beset by, whichever side you are on - temperaments that have previously manifested in vein-bulging, blood-vessel-bursting mayhem.

Yet such a collision of midfield merchants of menace could well be stalled in its tracks as the two FA Cup warriors battle against injury.

Keane's route to tomorrow's final at the Millennium Stadium has been more of a stop-start-stop rather than a run-up.

The Red Devils' skipper, who has declared himself ready to return to the Republic of Ireland fold, has been sidelined by an hamstring injury that kept him out of United's last three games of their ill-starred Premiership campaign.

Wise's fortunes have hardly been any better. Almost since guiding his Lions into the final showdown after a semi-final replay against Tranmere Rovers, his match-day presence has been more in the dug-out as he has battled against a long-standing knee injury. Such has been his concern that he missed Millwall's midweek press day, when a formidable press pack descended on the New Den, to jet out to Italy for specialist treatment on the injury.

For either to be deprived a place in tomorrow's Cardiff finale to the domestic season proper would be a major blow to fans of each player and neutrals, who would love nothing better than to see a good old tear-up between the daredevil duo.

Neither protagonist is new to the FA Cup's conspicious climax.

If Keane were to don the armband and lead United out he would be appearing in his seventh final, while Wise - a Wembley winner with Wimbledon and Chelsea - would rack up his fifth FA Cup final outing if he is able to shrug aside his knee injury.

Keane's United boss Sir Alex Ferguson once famously said of Wise that he could cause an argument in an empty room. It's the sort of back-handed compliment that could be ascribed to his own skipper, even if the Irishman's effectiveness as an engine-room enforcer is on the wane.

Let's hope for a spectacle that would have pleased Homer himself - the Greek, not the American, of course.

Updated: 08:37 Friday, May 21, 2004