Nemanja
Vidic will not allow his club form to be affected by
thoughts of this summer's World Cup.
The Manchester United defender was expected to be one of the
stars at Germany 2006 but ended up missing the entire competition
after suffering a knee ligament injury before the tournament began.
Now Vidic has the chance to make amends after Serbia qualified and
ended up in a tough group with Germany, Ghana and Australia.
Given his experience last time around, the 28-year-old could be
forgiven for taking things slightly tentatively in order to ensure
his presence in South Africa. But that is just not Vidic's
style.
''I am not thinking that far ahead,'' said the former Spartak
Moscow star. ''Sometimes when you do that you can cause yourself an
injury, so the best way is just try to play the next game and then
the one after that, and so on.
''There is still so much time to the World Cup so for now I am
concentrating on the big matches I have with Manchester
United.''
Not that Vidic ignored the World Cup draw itself earlier this
month. He recalls how Serbia ended up in the so-called ''Group of
Death'' with Argentina, Holland and the Ivory Coast four years
ago.
It is hardly much better now, although Vidic does feel his
country is in good shape to progress, providing they emerge with a
positive result in their opening game against Ghana in Pretoria on
June 13.
''It is very important to start well,'' he said. ''We had a
problem with injuries last time and were in a difficult group to
start with and it just didn't go well. Obviously it is not easy
this time either but I don't think we should complain about
that.
''We have some players who are at good teams in Europe and we
still have a chance to reach the next round.''