Nose for success: Vidic did not fear having his nose broken if he won titles and a European Cup with United

Howard Webb broke my nose,” says Nemanja Vidic and we’ll get to how. The main thing was his attitude to injuries. Actually, the nose got cracked more times than he remembers — by elbows, foreheads, knees, skulls; in 50-50s and airborne jousts. It was not that he didn’t feel pain. It was that he didn’t feel pain was important.

“Pride,” he smiles, with typical mischief. “You can fix your nose, but if you let somebody score the goal your pride cannot be fixed.” And that was the mentality of one of the hardest footballers to play our game. As Vidic once said: “I have no muscles, but I’m strong inside.”

As he says now: “If you looked closely on the pitch you’d have seen others