Man Utd's Antonio Valencia to miss most of season

Manchester United's Antonio Valencia will miss "a good portion" of the season after being injured in Tuesday's Champions League game against Rangers. The winger, 25, suffered significant ligament damage, plus a fractured ankle and underwent surgery on Wednesday. Despite claims from an Ecuador team doctor about Valencia's mental state, the Old Trafford club insisted the former Wigan star remained optimistic. "He is perfectly fine, positive and determined," a United statement read. The Premier League club said the operation had been a "success", revealing that a plate had been inserted into Valencia's ankle to stabilize the fracture and there was "obvious significant ligament damage that follows a dislocation". Valencia was carried off during the goalless draw with the Scottish giants after going down under an innocuous-looking tackle from Kirk Broadfoot in the 62nd minute.United manager Sir Alex Ferguson compared the severity of the injury to that suffered by former United player Alan Smith, who broke his left leg and dislocated his ankle in an FA Cup tie against Liverpool in February 2006. Smith was out for seven months, which if repeated with Valencia, would keep the winger out until April. Following Tuesday's match, Ferguson said: "It is a bad blow for the boy. It is similar to the injury Alan Smith got. "He seemed to dig his toe into the turf and as soon as we saw the Rangers player waving we knew it was a bad one - and it's turned into a bad one." Broadfoot, who signalled immediately after the challenge with Valencia that urgent treatment was needed, spoke of his horror at witnessing the injury. The Scottish defender said: "I just slid in and looked round and his bone was sticking out. We tried to get the physio on to help him because you don't like to see that. "I've never seen anything like that so close before. You see things like that on television and it's not good but to see it there in front of you, it doesn't look nice and I just hope he recovers quickly."Valencia's injury is comparable to the one England rugby union international Danny Cipriani suffered in 2008 when a fracture dislocation of his right ankle ruled him out for five months. Former Arsenal striker Eduardo broke a leg and dislocated an ankle in a Premier League game against Birmingham in 2008, returning to action a year later. Manchester United are already missing England midfielder Michael Carrick because of an ankle injury, although Brazilian Anderson is available again following a seven-month absence with cruciate ligament damage. Ferguson, too, has other options out wide in the form of Nani, Gabriel Obertan, veteran Ryan Giggs - who replaced Valencia on the night - and Ji-Sung Park, who started on the left flank against Rangers. Valencia, who arrived at United from Wigan in June 2009 as Cristiano Ronaldo departed for Real Madrid, was making his fourth appearance of a season that began with him scoring in the 3-1 Community Shield win over Chelsea.