Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed today that United captain Nemanja Vidic will miss the rest of the season after suffering knee ligament damage against Basel.

“Nemanja is out for the season,” United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said. “It is bad news. He will be a loss. I thought [the injury] was a bad one when I saw it. [Vidic] sees the specialist on Monday to map out the progress of when he has the operation. It won’t be immediate because we have to let the swelling come down.”

Big opportunity for Evans, Jones and Smalling then to step up an fill the void left by Vudic.