Manchester United defender Gary Neville will be sidelined for three weeks by an ankle injury, ruling him out of England's Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Andorra, Alex Ferguson said yesterday.

The United manager gave his verdict after Neville went over on his ankle in the opening minutes of United's 4-1 Premier League win over Bolton Wanderers and had to be replaced by Wes Brown.

"It's ligament damage and he'll be out for three weeks, I feel," he told Sky Sports News.

"It's a blow, there's no question about that," added Ferguson, whose side face Middlesbrough tomorrow in an FA Cup quarter-final replay.

"Wes Brown will continue to play... and definitely on Monday (tomorrow)."

England coach Steve McClaren had been hoping to get through two days of Premier League action plus tomorrow's FA Cup replays without any of his squad sustaining an injury.

But those hopes were scuppered after just nine minutes of the very first match. Clearly in pain, right back Neville had to be helped off the Old Trafford pitch.

Neville's cover in the England squad McClaren named on Friday was Manchester City's Micah Richards, who conceded a match-winning penalty in their 1-0 league defeat by Chelsea in midweek.

Brown could now also earn an England call-up, as McClaren faces a decision over whether to add to the squad.

He is already missing both his first-choice full-backs on the left side as Ashley Cole is suspended for the Israel game and Wayne Bridge is out of both through injury.

Third in Group E, England's faltering campaign to qualify for Euro 2008 takes them to Israel for a game on Saturday and to Spain for another qualifier against Andorra four days later.

Eleven of McClaren's squad will be in action tomorrow when United play Middlesbrough and Tottenham Hotspur host Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final replays.