The Old Trafford skipper was ruled out of the remainder of the current campaign after damaging cruciate ligaments in his club's 2-1 defeat to Basle at the beginning of December. Vidic went under the knife earlier this week and Ferguson was pleased to report there were no complications in the operation process. The United boss told the club's official website: "He had surgery on Wednesday and came through fine. "They didn't remove anything at all, everything's clear, but it's a cruciate so it'll be next season." Ahead of hosting Blackburn on New Year's Eve, Ferguson also had positive news regarding other members of United's lengthy injury-list. "Anderson's coming on great," he said. "He's showing great progress. He's trained well. We're just monitoring him, because he still has to do a lot of work in the gymnasium, but he's coming along. "Fabio Da Silva's not far away, he should be back in maybe 10 days. The centre-backs (Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans) aren't long-term - they should be available in the next week or two." But Ferguson said Michael Owen and Tom Cleverley were "still nowhere near" returning and the latter has been sorely missed. "Cleverley's a massive loss," he said. "He, to my mind, is probably the best midfield player in Britain, potentially. He has fantastic promise, so it's a loss to us."
