• Premier League

Vidic returns to training for Utd

ESPN staff
November 30, 2012
Nemanja Vidic is returning from another injury lay-off © Getty Images
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Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic has returned to full training and could be back in the team in two weeks.

The Serb defender has been out since mid-September with a knee injury which required surgery and was expected to rule him out until Christmas.

However, the 31-year-old's recuperation has progressed quicker than expected and he could make his return to first-team action within the next fortnight.

The commanding centre-back is unlikely to be ready for first-team action by the time United travel to face neighbours and title rivals Manchester City on Sunday, December 9, with a return at home to Sunderland the following weekend more realistic.

In Vidic's absence, Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans have been United's main central partnership at the back, although Michael Carrick has been called upon to drop into defence on occasion.

The midfielder was pleased to see his team earn a clean sheet in the 1-0 win over West Ham on Wednesday, the first time they had done so in seven league games, since their 3-0 win at Newcastle on October 7.

"We got the clean sheet and it is something to build on because the performance needs to be better," he said. "It was far from a classic. We were not at our best and the free-flowing football we want to play didn't quite happen.

"We had a spell, about a year or two ago, when we were starting games really well and killing teams off really early. We want to get back to that because Old Trafford is a difficult place to play when you go a goal down.

"We want to make it that way because going a goal down has made things a lot harder for us than they should have been.

"Keeping a clean sheet gives us something to build on in the future, that's the biggest positive we can take."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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