Ankle injury bedevils Neville

Manchester United captain Gary Neville is expected to remain on the sidelines for another three weeks with ankle ligament damage.

Neville sustained the injury in the Red Devils’ win over Bolton on March 17 and subsequently missed out on England’s Euro 2008 qualification double-header against Israel and Andorra.

He was expected to return for the April 7 trip to Portsmouth but manager Alex Ferguson now predicts his comeback will be delayed.

“The swelling has only just gone down on his ankle so the injury was maybe a bit worse than we thought in terms of the swelling,” the boss told Manchester United Radio.

“But he has been doing some good work in the gym and I expect him to be back in the first team in three weeks’ time.”

Neville should now return either for the FA Cup semi-final against Watford on April 14 or the Premiership game against Sheffield United on April 17.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (knee) and Edwin van der Sar (calf) should return against Blackburn tomorrow while Darren Fletcher (ankle) is still two weeks away from fitness.

Louis Saha has an outside chance of playing after recovering from a hamstring injury but is more likely to be rested until the clash with Portsmouth next week, and Paul Scholes is available again after suspension.

Provisional squad: Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown, Heinze, Evra, Park, Ronaldo, O’Shea, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Richardson, Eagles, Rooney, Smith, Dong, Solskjaer.