Soccer:Manchester United have been dealt another injury hammer blow after skipper Nemanja Vidic was ruled out for eight weeks following knee surgery. Vidic, who missed the final five months of last season after rupturing his cruciate in the Champions League defeat to Basle, missed Sunday's Premier League win at Liverpool after complaining of tightness in his right knee.

However, a subsequent examination revealed a greater problem, prompting Vidic to be sent for an operation, which has now been completed.

“Nemanja Vidic has had a meniscus operation on his right knee and will be out for around eight weeks,” said a club spokesman. “Sir Alex (Ferguson), as a precautionary measure, rested Vidic at the weekend, after he complained of tightness in his knee, however, further medical investigation revealed the underlying problem.

“The central defender was operated on this week and will be sidelined for about eight weeks.”

United take their first tentative steps towards another trophy at Old Trafford tomorrow with Ferguson pondering whether to introduce a couple of significant faces to his team to play Newcastle in the League Cup. In rejecting the potential for Wayne Rooney to feature in last weekend’s emotional trip to Liverpool, Ferguson vaguely offered “next week” as a possibility for the striker’s return from a gashed thigh.

And Ferguson has previously used the fourth competition on his list of seasonal priorities for star men to hit the comeback trail, having done so with Cristiano Ronaldo, who made his first start of the 2008-09 campaign against Middlesbrough after recovering from ankle surgery.

Although Tottenham, Cluj and a Premier League trip to Newcastle are also to come before the next international break, as Rooney has returned to training, a place on the bench tomorrow cannot entirely be ruled out, particularly as the striker has such a good record against the Magpies.

Rooney will want to make an impact when he does eventually return, having failed to shine in the opening weekend defeat to former club Everton, which resulted in him being dropped against Fulham five days later. That was the game in which the 26-year-old sustained the deep gash to his thigh that has ruled him out for a month so far, and keen to make up for lost time in his battle for a first-team berth.

Whilst Rooney’s participation cannot be taken for granted, it appears to be the perfect opportunity for 18-year-old new-boy Angelo Henriquez. Delays in securing Henriquez’s international clearance following his arrival from Chile meant that Ferguson was unwilling to register the teenager in his Champions League squad.

Having taken the decision not to immediately send Henriquez back to South America as expected, the newly-rebranded League Cup offers the most obvious opportunity for first-team action and it would be a surprise if he was not involved at some stage.

Nick Powell, Alex Buttner and Michael Keane are others who can expect to feature, whilst even more significant will be Darren Fletcher’s anticipated presence in the United starting line-up. Providing Fletcher makes it, the Scotland skipper would be making another major step forward in his battle to combat a chronic bowel complaint, made public in December but which has troubled him since March 2011.