Sir Alex Ferguson may have paid strong tribute to footballer Ryan Giggs as the Manchester United veteran edges towards yet another impressive landmark - but the manager wasn't confident enough to bring the 38-year-old on as a substitute in Friday's 2-1 home loss to Dutch side Ajax in their Europa League match at Old Trafford.
Giggs was in line to make his 900th appearance for United but Ajax won 2-1 to leave the English side scraping through to the last 16 3-2 on aggregate, after winning the first leg 2-0 in Amsterdam.
That leaves Giggs to notch up that mark in Premier League champions United's next league game at Norwich on Sunday.
Ferguson believes that English football will never see his like again and Giggs keeps defying his age and his performance level this season is as good as it was 10 years ago.
