VMware vmplayer failing to launch VM on Ubuntu: "Could not open /dev/vmmon" [migrated]

VMware vmplayer failing to launch VM on Ubuntu: "Could not open
/dev/vmmon" [migrated]

I get the following error when trying to launch an ova VM using VMPlayer
on Ubuntu 12.04
Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure the
kernel module 'vmmon' is loaded
I checked with lsmod and it was indeed not loaded. When i try to load the
module using "modprobe -v vmmon", i get the following error:-
insmod /lib/modules/3.5.0-37-generic/misc/vmmon.ko
FATAL: Error inserting vmmon
(/lib/modules/3.5.0-37-generic/misc/vmmon.ko): Invalid module format
Then I found from the VMware forums the following suggestion:-
sudo mv /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary.old
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all --appname="VMware Player"
--icon="vmware-player"
This does a lot of compilation, which I guess is to compile the module
again, but I get the following output at the end of it:-
Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor failed
Virtual machine communication interface done
VM communication interface socket family done
Blocking file system done
Virtual ethernet done
VMware Authentication Daemon done
Unable to start services
After this I get the same error as the start of the whole process. This
has got me completely stumped for 2 days now, any help will be highly
appreciated :(