Valencia injury shocker

MANCHESTER United manager Sir Alex Ferguson fears Antonio Valencia will be out for the rest of the season after suffering a broken ankle in the Reds’ Champions League draw with Rangers at Old Trafford last night.

Valencia went down after an incident involving Kirk Broadfoot and immediately signalled he was in trouble.

TV replays showed his foot pointing in the wrong direction and he was eventually taken off on a stretcher, with Broadfoot in obvious distress.

Ferguson later admitted he made a mistake by not putting Dimitar Berbatov on the substitutes’ bench for Manchester United's disappointing Champions League draw with Rangers at Old Trafford last night.

Ferguson made 10 changes and gave in–form Berbatov the night off as he tried to assess the standing of some new players.

But as United struggled to overcome Rangers' blanket defence, Ferguson found himself lacking someone with the guile to find a way through once Antonio Valencia had departed with an horrific ankle injury.

Ferguson insisted he had no alternative as he enters such a congested phase of the season.

"We wanted to find out about one or two players," he said. "There were plenty of good players on the pitch."

Unfortunately for United they kept running into a brick wall, as the five Rangers defenders were protected by four midfielders.

Only Darron Gibson came close to breaking the deadlock with a couple of fierce long–range efforts which whistled past the post.

Wayne Rooney had one half–chance on his return to action but nothing clear-cut and United were forced to wait until the 84th minute to force their first corner.