Carrick faces three weeks out

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed he expects £18.6million signing Michael Carrick to be out of action for at least three weeks after sustaining ankle ligament damage in Saturday night's 1-0 win over Ajax.

The England midfielder suffered the problem just 14 minutes into the game after being on the wrong end of a tackle by hosts' skipper Kenneth Perez.

"It is ligament damage to the ankle," said United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. "It is difficult to say what will happen with these things because we don't know what his general recovery time is but it will be three weeks at least."

He added: "It is a blow for the young lad because he has only just joined us and he wanted to do well. It knocks him back a bit but it's something we have to handle as we have done many times in the past."