John O'Shea is likely to miss the rest of Manchester United's season with an injury, the manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed. The defender was injured during the Republic of Ireland's World Cup play-off defeat to France in November and has not played since.

The injury, first thought to have been a dead leg, is worse than originally feared and complications, including a blood clot, mean O'Shea is unlikely to play again this season.

"He's got a terrible injury at the moment," Ferguson told the Irish Independent. "It's one of those sorts of injuries that are unusual. It's like a dead leg except a dead leg usually [lasts] 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. He'll probably miss the season now," he added. "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."