Manchester United have confirmed that Ryan Giggs suffered a broken arm in last night’s 1-1 draw at Villa and will now be sidelined for up to four weeks.

Giggs will miss a host of prestigious fixtures including the Carling Cup Final against Villa and the Champions League trip to AC Milan next Tuesday, with Alex Ferguson apparently hoping for a return for the Welshman in the home leg on March 10. More to the point, Giggs will miss United’s double fixtures in gameweek 27 at Everton and against West Ham at Old Trafford. With Nani also sitting these games out through suspension, the decks are clearing in the United midfield making things a litle easier for us Fantasy Managers to home in on a purchase…

As mentioned earlier, Antonio Valencia is set to top the rankings for “transfers in” over the next week. His starting role over the two fixtures looks fairly assured barring injury in Milan. However, the absence of Giggs could also see increased interest in the likes of Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and even Ji-Sung Park.

Carrick and Fletcher have become regular starter in Ferguson’s Premier League midfield, with Fletcher’s price (5.5 in the Fantasy Premier League game) likely to work in his favour and earn him some interest. Park would represent far more of a gamble. He too is priced at just 5.5 in the FPL but his season has been blighted by injury, restricting him to sporadic spells in the United lineup. His goal at the Emirates in gameweek 24 acted as a reminder of his talents and with Nani and Giggs absent, he could well get the nod on the United left for the Everton and West Ham games.

Double gameweek investors need to be wary however. United immediately follow the double with a missing fixture in gameweek 28. With Rooney likely to be in our the majority of our lineups, heavy investment in United could lead to some rather expensive looking FPL benches come February 27.