Michael Carrick will be out of action for up to six weeks after hobbling out of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool with a broken bone in his foot.
Carrick will miss Wednesday’s game with Villarreal and is now a major doubt for forthcoming European encounters with Aalborg and Celtic.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admits Carrick’s injury is not his only concern as Dimitar Berbatov and Wes Brown are also receiving treatment on knocks they picked up in the Liverpool game.
“We have some injury problems for tomorrow,” admitted Ferguson.
“Michael Carrick, as you know, it’s not worked out for us. He came off on Saturday and he’s got a crack in his foot.
“It was diagnosed on Sunday afternoon and he’ll be out for four to six weeks, which is not good news.
“Berbatov is very doubtful following his knee injury in Saturday’s game. There’s one or two other bumps and bruises. Wes Brown got a knee injury, hopefully he’ll be okay tomorrow.
“Berbatov came off and went back on again in the game. There is swelling on the knee but we’re working on that. We’ll see.
“We’ve a good strong squad so we should be okay for what is an important game.”
