It was the news that Sir Alex Ferguson expected, but it nevertheless stung when it was confirmed that defender Nemanja Vidic will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his cruciate knee ligament.
The giant Serbian suffered the injury just before half-time in the club’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Basel, a loss that sent them spiralling out of the Champions League and into the Europa League.
The damaging prognosis of Vidic's injury merely rubs salt into an already gaping United wounds.
With the club still five points behind Manchester City in the title race, it is little wonder that things are a little glum in the red half of Manchester at present, with festive cheer conspicuous by its absence during Fergie’s press conference.
"Nemanja is out for the season," 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."
He now joins Dimtar Berbatov, Michael Owen, Anderson, Tom Cleverley, Fabio, Rafael and Javier Hernandez on the sidelines, while winger Ashley Young looked to have aggravated his toe injury against Basel where he was substituted in the second half.
The Red Devils have fallen well behind in the Premier League betting with their rampant noisy neighbours seemingly on an unstoppable course for the title next May.
That will be hard to take for a man like Ferguson, who is eyeing a final flourish before bringing the curtain down on his illustrious managerial career.
However, people were writing similar obituaries when United last upset the football betting and tumbled out of the Champions League back in 2005. They had also gone three years without the league title at that stage too, but they roared back to win three Premier League trophies, two league cups, the Champions League and two further Champions League finals.
Given what’s gone on before, I wouldn’t bet against Fergie having the last laugh this time round either.
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