Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Antonio Valencia could be playing again by the end of February.

The Manchester United winger was carried off during United's Champions League 0-0 draw with Rangers on Tuesday, after suffering a horrific injury in an apparently innocuous incident involving the defender Kirk Broadfoot.

Ferguson had said that Valencia would miss the remainder of the season. However, it appears the damage is not quite as bad as the United manager feared.

"You can never be 100% accurate in these situations and it is a bad injury but we are looking at the end of February, which is better than we thought on Tuesday," the United manager said.

Valencia had an operation on Wednesday evening to put his left ankle back into place after it was fractured and dislocated. Ferguson said the Ecuador star had also suffered some ligament damage.

"The operation has been successful and the break was clean, which was the major concern for us at the time," he said. "He is a strong boy, who is very positive about it. Being positive helps you in these situations, so we are very hopeful we will get him back then."