AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini will miss tonight's Champions League semi-final second leg match against Manchester United after failing to recover from a knee injury.
Milan need to overturn a 3-2 first-leg deficit against the Premiership leaders to reach the final of Europe's top club competition for the tenth time in their history.
Maldini, who picked up the injury in last week's match at Old Trafford, has represented the club in seven of their previous nine finals but will be powerless to help his team at the San Siro.
"I've got a swollen knee and I'm not going to recover in time. I'm getting old," the 38-year-old defender said this afternoon, just hours before the teams were due to meet in Milan.
Sir Alex Ferguson has taken a calculated gamble by naming Nemanja Vidic in the Manchester United starting line-up tonight.
Vidic has not played since breaking a collarbone against Blackburn on March 31 but with his defensive options limited, Ferguson was always likely to either recall the Serbian defender or rush Rio Ferdinand back from his groin strain.
Ferdinand is on the bench with Vidic partnering Wes Brown in a Red Devils defence which sees Wes Brown and Gabriel Heinze at full-back.
As expected, Ferguson has offered Darren Fletcher an anchor role in midfield as United looked to preserve their narrow one-goal advantage from the first leg.
Heinze, Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo begin the game knowing a booking would rule them out of a potential final meeting with Liverpool in Athens.
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