Anderson's Agony

Anderson has been ruled out for the rest of the season after severely damaging his cruciate ligament during Tuesday’s match against West Ham.

This will also mean that any lingering hopes he had of representing Brazil in the World Cup this summer have also gone out of the window.

He appeared to do the damage sometime around the seventh minute of the game and quite how he managed to play on for a further ten minutes is beyond me. In retrospect, he probably should have come off immediately.

It is particularly galling for him because he had been given another opportunity to impress by Fergie and with Carrick suspended for the AC Milan game, he would almost certainly have found himself lining up alongside Fletcher for that one.

However, in a strange way, it could be the makings of him.

He arrived at United from Porto in 2007 for a fee that is reported to have been around £18 Million – a massive fee for a 19 year old prospect and despite being quite impressive during that first season, he has not really kicked on and has found himself completely out of favour for most of this season.

There may have been a suggestion that he believed it was all too easy and that he didn’t necessarily have to seize every opportunity that was open to him with both hands.

It is a cruel way to learn but he will now realise that all opportunities can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye in this game and he will be hurting badly.

Hopefully, he will make a full recovery from this injury and come back a stronger player mentally who will never again take anything for granted.