Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic knows he has a battle to get back into the first team next season.

Vidic hopes to be fully recovered from knee surgery for preseason training.

When asked by MUTV if it may be hard to win his place back, he replied: "Definitely. Jonny [Evans] has had a great year. I think Chris [Smalling] as well, before he got injured, is looking for that position as central defender. Rio [Ferdinand] is fit after a long time and was fit for so many games so we now have really big competition next year.

"I don't mind that. I don't think any player minds that. It makes you train harder, play better and obviously we have so many games during the season that we need good players."