Manchester United hope to welcome back one of their old guard this week, with Gary Neville nearing a return after more than seven months on the sidelines, but they may be without another until February in the wake of a scan confirming the worst fears about Paul Scholes’s knee injury.

The former England midfield player had spent almost a week awaiting diagnosis since limping out of a training session in Ukraine eight days ago, 24 hours before the 4-2 victory over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League. An initial scan on Wednesday was inconclusive, but a second in London yesterday resulted in the news that he and Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, had feared – the damage to knee ligaments would require surgery, on Thursday, and an enforced three-month layoff.

Anderson, the young Brazilian, has flourished in Scholes’s absence in the past two matches - the victory in Kiev and a 4-1 win over Middlesbrough in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday – and his credentials will be examined further as he deputises for the player whom he is expected to eventually replace. With Michael Carrick not fit after dislocating an elbow, Anderson, 19, should form a central-midfield pairing with Owen Hargreaves in the crucial match away to Arsenal at lunchtime on Saturday.

The loss of Scholes is a blow, but it is offset by the return of Hargreaves, the progress of Anderson and the imminent comeback of Neville. The United captain has suffered several setbacks since damaging ankle ligaments against Bolton Wanderers on March 17, but he is expected to step up his rehabilitation on Thursday by playing for the reserves against Stockport County in the Manchester Senior Cup.

Edwin van der Sar, another United veteran, is to retire from international football after next summer’s European Championship finals. The goalkeeper, 37 yesterday, is Holland’s most capped player, with 121 appearances, but he will stand down with a view to prolonging his career at Old Trafford.

United, meanwhile, are understood to have agreed to send a team to Saudi Arabia in January to play in a testimonial match for Sami Al-Jaber, one of the country’s most celebrated players. United accepted the invitation from Al-Jaber, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers forward, who had failed with earlier requests to Barcelona and Real Madrid.