Players must rise to the challenge to stay at Manchester United - Evans

The Red Devils defender says that players must be able to overcome adversity with the Premier League champions - and if they cannot, they should not be at the club

Jonny Evans says that players who cannot rise to the challenge of playing for Manchester United do not deserve to stay at the club.

Since Nemanja Vidic picked up a season-ending injury in December, Evans has started in all but two of United's Premier League games, both of which they lost, and the centre-back is a leading contender for the Red Devils' Player of the Season award.

Last summer, the defender had admitted that, if he continued to play as he had in the 2010-11 campaign, he probably would not be at Old Trafford much longer.

"Maybe I was too honest and shouldn't have said that," the Northern Irishman told the club's official website on Tuesday.

"But that was an honest opinion of myself, I guess. Every player goes through that. It was up to me to find a way to get through it. It was a challenge for me and everybody needs to be challenged.

"You either rise to it or you don't, and if you don't then you don't deserve to be at a club like Manchester United.

	HOLDING FIRM?
5/6	Manchester City are 5/6 with Bet365 to score under 1.5 goals against Manchester United

"Those are the sorts of challenges everybody here faces - when that happens it's up to you to try and raise your game and get back into the team."

The 24-year-old defender has already amassed his highest-yet total of appearances in a single season for the club with three games remaining of this term, and is on the brink of securing more total outings than decorated former Red Devils Jaap Stam, Quinton Fortune and Joe Jordan.

He continued: "When I came back from being on loan at Sunderland [in 2007-08] I never thought I'd go on to play more than 30 games in my first season at United. That was crazy.

"And I don't think about how many games I might end up playing. My aim is always to just get into the next team and then play well.

"I've been here about four years and I've played 120-odd games - that's about 30 a season. Hopefully I can add a few more to that next year."