Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has confirmed that John O’Shea will miss the rest of the season thanks to the dead leg injury picked up in the World Cup playoff against France in Paris last November.

Fergie told the Irish Independent, “He’s got a terrible injury at the moment. It’s one of those sorts of injuries that are unusual. It’s like a dead leg except a dead leg is usually only three or four days.

“The problem is that the blood clot became all knotted and when it gets knotted you get calcification so therefore it’s a long process to clear that up and he’ll probably miss the season now. It’s a bad blow for the boy and for the team because he can play anywhere.

“When you look at all the problems I’ve had with the back four this season, he could have played every single one.”