The England international sustained an ankle injury in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United at Old Trafford and has withdrawn from the national team squad to play the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Ryan Giggs also injured his hamstring in that match and may face a similar spell on the sidelines.

Carlos Tevez missed the Newcastle encounter after the death of an uncle, but will return for the next match against Portsmouth. Ferguson will also have a fitter Wayne Rooney at his disposal following his recent virus. That news is one of the few positives for the Scot who also saw youngster Fraizer Campbell pick up an injury.

many complaints

"Michael has an ankle injury and it has swollen up very badly and he'll be out for maybe two or three weeks which is unfortunate," Ferguson said.

"Ryan's got a hamstring injury so it was disappointing to get these injuries on top of what we're missing anyway. I haven't got too many complaints. We did our best with the resources we had available.

"Carlos Tevez will be back for the Portsmouth match next week and Wayne [Rooney] will be much sharper and much fitter and in the second half it started to show for him but unfortunately Campbell also picked up an injury and I had to take him off, so we were asking Wayne to play through the middle when he's really needing games and it was a big ask."

Obafemi Martins gave Newcastle the lead only for Darren Fletcher to quickly equalise.