Nemanja Vidic longs for the chance to try and stop Wayne Rooney - a man he calls the best striker in the world.

Vidic and Rooney will be united in a common cause from now until May 22, when they hope to be helping Manchester United to Champions League glory in Madrid.

After that though, national pride takes precedence in South Africa, where both England and Serbia will compete for the World Cup.

And it has not escaped Vidic's notice that his own side could meet Rooney's in the first knockout round. A contest to relish, in every sense.

"Wayne is definitely the best striker in the world," said Vidic.

"This year he has been great, especially in the second part of the season.

"He is one of the major reasons why we have been winning so many games.

"But after sharing the same dressing room, it would be fun to play against Wayne.

"One of us would have to lose and he is a great player, who would be hard to keep quiet.

"But that is the challenge. You want it. That is why you play football."

Vidic is enough of a patriot to bring up the topic of a World Cup meeting inside the United dressing room.

Rooney's jocular response did not come as a surprise.

"We have a hard group. We play against Germany, Ghana and Australia. That is tough," said Vidic.

"But I just mentioned to him if we got through we have a chance to meet England.

"I said it would be an interesting game. He said "Serbia? Who plays for them?.

"He was joking. He knows we are doing well and he knows we are not an easy team, even though England are a big one.

"We have a lot of good players right across Europe."

Although Cristiano Ronaldo's meeting with Rooney at the last World Cup earned the Portugal superstar all kinds of negative publicity for his part in the striker's dismissal in the quarter-final, few would be surprised if Vidic engaged in a muscular duel with Rooney, nor question the Serbian's loyalty to his country.

Not that he would set out to injure his friend. That is far more likely to happen in training.

"I don't kick so many players," he laughed. "I would kick him more in training."

But Vidic's defensive brilliance makes him the ideal man to assess Rooney's striking abilities.

Varied and plentiful appears to be the general view.

"He is strong and he has pace. For a defender, players like that are always difficult.

"He is playing with confidence, which is important and now he is scoring a lot of goals with his head. In fact, I need to speak with him about that because I have not scored many myself this season."

Vidic will be hoping Rooney is on top form against Fulham tomorrow as United attempt to secure the Premier League's top spot ahead of next weekend's tussle with Liverpool, against whom the defender has been dismissed on the past three meetings.

Michael Carrick is set to return from suspension for Ferguson's men, probably at the expense of Paul Scholes, who has unusually started two games in five days.

Gary Neville might also be replaced by Rafael Da Silva, whilst United are expected to find a place for record signing Dimitar Berbatov, who was unfortunate to be dropped for Wednesday's win over AC Milan but may benefit from a switch to two orthodox strikers against a Fulham side drained themselves by their Europa League exploits against Juventus on Thursday.