Fergie: Evra's the best in the business

Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed Patrice Evra as the best left-back in the world and identified him as Manchester United's unsung hero this season.

While Wayne Rooney has taken all the plaudits for his 34-goal heroics, United boss Fergie singled out Evra as his most consistent performer this term.

Evra, who has played in every one of United's Premier League games this season, beat Chelsea and England left-back Ashley Cole to be named in the PFA Team of the Year.

Although Cole is widely regarded as the most accomplished left-back in world football, Evra's fellow professionals gave him the nod ahead of the Chelsea and England star.

And United boss Fergie claimed no other Premier League player had come close to matching the French international for consistency of performance this season.

"The form of Evra has been sensational all season," said Fergie. There's no-one near Evra's consistency. No-one.

"He's the one player who has not missed any games. He's only not started one Premier League game all season.

"We rested him at Blackburn because he I think he needed a break then, but he came on as a sub there and has done tremendously well since then.

"If you look at the rest of our back four, it's all been scattered appearances.

"With that in mind, we've done remarkably well to still be in the picture despite the handicap of our back-four players being injured."

With Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, John O'Shea, Jonny Evans, Gary Neville and Rafael Da Silva all sidelined at some stage this season, Evra has been the one constant for United.

Evra won the penalty that set United on their way to a crucial 3-1 win over Tottenham last weekend, with a typical attacking run, before being forced off after being sick on the pitch.

The 28-year-old had been struggling with a bug in the build-up to the Spurs game, but Fergie said it was a measure of Evra's dependability that he insisted on playing for United.

"Evra was sick at half-time and eventually we had to take him off because the problem was dehydration," said Fergie.

"We had a bit of sickness with two or three players but Patrice felt okay to play and wanted to play."