The Serbian defender immediately
indicated he was in trouble after falling awkwardly following a
challenge from Marco Streller during the first-half of the
Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said after the
game his captain had suffered ligament damage, but hoped the damage
to his right knee was not too serious.
However, after Vidic underwent a scan on Thursday, his agent
Silvano Martina said: “Unfortunately he has suffered a ruptured
cruciate ligament.” Asked if the player would be out for several
months, the agent said: “Unfortunately so, yes.”
Ferguson will give a definitive assessment at this morning’s
scheduled press conference to preview Saturday’s Premier League
encounter with Wolves.
The Serbian’s return from a calf problem sustained in the
opening-day win at West Brom was cited by many as the moment
Manchester United’s defensive difficulties began to
ease.
Despite repeated suggestions the player would leave Old
Trafford, Vidic remains one of the key figures in Ferguson’s squad
and his absence would place additional focus on younger players
such as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, who were chided by Roy Keane
in Switzerland last night. It would certainly cause Ferguson a
major headache given his other defensive stalwart, Rio Ferdinand,
is rarely able to string games together due to a series of muscular
problems.
Ferdinand admitted last night United will face “ridicule” for
dropping into the Europa League. In the past, United fans have
taunted their Liverpool counterparts over Europa League
participation by chanting “Thursday night, Channel Five”.
But Ferdinand insisted: “No matter what gets said, ridiculed or
not, we respect the tournament and will go in there to win it.
“We are definitely good enough to bounce back,” he said.
“It is only a couple of weeks ago people were saying we were
going to be champions and we were going to do this and that. It
doesn’t change after one night in Europe.
“We have a lot of players here with valuable experience. That
will come into play now.”
As if playing in the Europa League was not bad enough for
United, they and Manchester City also face the prospect of having
the second leg of their second-round ties rescheduled for a midweek
afternoon.
Teams from the same city are banned from playing at home on the
same day, which would mean United or City having to move their
fixture to Tuesday or Wednesday, given that both clubs are seeded
and will play their second legs at home.
But Uefa is also determined to prevent a Europa League match
from clashing with a Champions League game.
With the possibility of extra time and penalties, the latest
time at which a Europa League game could kick-off, if Uefa decides
to enforce this convention, is 5pm.
It is the same fate that befell Everton two years ago when they
had a clash with Liverpool and were eventually ordered to play
Sporting Lisbon on the Tuesday, with a 5.45pm kick-off.
