Manchester United have rejected any suggestion that Ruud van Nistelrooy could be heading for Barcelona in the summer.

The 26-goal striker's agent, Rodger Linse, suggested on Spanish radio yesterday that Van Nistelrooy would not be completely adverse to joining the Catalan giants should United indicate they wish to do a deal.

Having only signed a new contract in January that ties him to Old Trafford until 2008, the odds on Van Nistelrooy leaving were not very high.

Van Nistelrooy has also given short shrift to the reports. "I am happy at Manchester United," the striker told www.manutd.com.

"I recently signed a new contract and I wouldn't have committed my future to the club if I wasn't happy.

"I am enjoying my football, the fans are second to none, and any reports of me leaving are just wild rumours."

A United spokesman added: "The talk that Ruud might be leaving this summer is rubbish. Why would the club have gone to such great efforts to negotiate a new contract if he wasn't going to stay?"

There has previously been speculation suggesting that Van Nistelrooy, who missed last night's 1-0 victory against Leicester with a knee injury, was at the top of Real Madrid's summer hit-list.

However, given the mutual admiration between the club and a player who has scored 106 times in less than three full seasons since his £18.5 million move from PSV Eindhoven, it is difficult to see willingness on either side for a parting of the ways.

Van Nistelrooy has never forgotten how manager Alex Ferguson kept faith with him after his initial transfer to United collapsed amid fitness concerns when he ruptured his cruciate knee ligament in training days after returning to PSV.

United's chief executive, David Gill, was equally unequivocal in rejecting the departure talk. "Ruud is not for sale," said Gill.

The news will no doubt come as welcome reassurance to the United fans.

Meanwhile, Spanish champions Real Madrid will head to the luxury resort of La Manga in the southeastern region of Murcia for three days of secluded training before Saturday's derby clash with Atletico Madrid after fans taunted the team following a string of humiliating losses.

Fans jeered Real's players at training yesterday and held up offensive signs after the team relinquished the leadership of Spain's Primera Liga following a 3-0 home thrashing by Osasuna at the weekend.

In recent weeks Madrid also tumbled out of the Champions League at the hands of Monaco and lost the final of the Spanish Cup to struggling Zaragoza.

With six league games to play, Madrid have 67 points, two behind league leaders Valencia.

"I understand that people are angry. Madrid fans always want to win," Real's Brazilian defender Robert Carlos told a news conference. "From Saturday onwards it will be a different story. We are hoping for a big victory against Atletico Madrid."

The Ukraine national football coach, Oleg Blokhin, was taken to hospital after a car crash on the outskirts of Kiev yesterday, a team spokesman said.

Blokhin, appointed coach last September, escaped serious injury but was being examined in hospital, Igor Miroshnichenko said.

Blokhin, European Player of the Year in 1975, had been a passenger in the vehicle when it crashed into a smaller car.

Former goalkeeper Jorge Fossati has been named as Uruguay coach, replacing Juan Ramon Carrasco who was sacked last week after a 3-0 home defeat by Venezuela in a World Cup qualifier.

"Fossati's the chosen man," Uruguayan Football Association (UAF) president Eugenio Figueredo told reporters yesterday.