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Silvestre suffers cruciate blow
Mikael Silvestre is likely to miss the rest of the season after scans confirmed that he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury against Everton on Saturday.
The Reds left-back, who was playing his first match since the opening day of the season against Reading, got his studs caught in the Goodison Park turf and fell awkwardly, twisting his knee.
Silvestre is the third United player to suffer a serious knee injury this year, after similar fates befell Korean midfielder Ji-sung Park and goalkeeper Ben Foster.
The trio are joined on the Reds' injury list by Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea, who are expected to be out for a number of weeks at least.
Silvestre's enforced absence, coupled with the summer sale of Gabriel Heinze, means Patrice Evra is Sir Alex Ferguson's sole recognised left-back.
However, United's squad has been suitably reinforced over the summer by the return of burgeoning talents such as Gerard Pique, Jonny Evans, Danny Simpson and Phil Bardsley.
Double injury boost for Reds
The Reds will have Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves back in action for the trip to Lisbon this week.
United have been without Rooney since the opening day of the season when he suffered a metatarsal fracture in his left foot, while Hargreaves has been troubled by a knee injury.
Rooney had been expected to play a part in Saturday's 1-0 win over his former club Everton, but Reds boss Sir Alex opted to rest the 21-year-old striker, who instead trained over the weekend in preparation for Wednesday's visit to Portugal.
"They'll both be ok for Wednesday," Sir Alex told MUTV after the victory at Goodison Park.
"We took medical advice on Wayne and as he had only started training on Monday, we felt that five days' training was maybe a bit short.
"But he trained on Saturday morning, Sunday and he'll train right through until Wednesday. By that point he will definitely be available for the match against Sporting Lisbon."
Vidic eyes strong start in Europe
United’s goalscoring hero against Everton Nemanja Vidic says it’s vital the Reds get off to a good start in the Champions League on Wednesday when they take on Sporting Lisbon.
The squad fly out to Portugal on Tuesday morning to prepare for the match at Sporting’s Estádio José Alvalade.
Vidic came to United’s rescue on Saturday with an 83rd-minute headed winner to secure a vital three points at Goodison Park, and now the Serbian defender is eyeing victory in the opening Group F match.
“It’s really important that we get off to a good start in the Champions League,” Nemanja told MUTV. “We know Sporting Lisbon will be difficult to play against,” he added. “They are technically very good and they know how to keep possession of the ball, which makes it difficult. But we want to start the tournament well and get a good result.”
The Reds began last season’s European campaign with a win on Portuguese soil - Louis Saha grabbing the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Benfica.
Although the Reds needed to beat the Lisbon club at Old Trafford in the final group game following surprise defeats to FC Copenhagen and Celtic, United improved as the tournament progressed and went on to reach the semi finals, only to be stopped by the eventual winners AC Milan.
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