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The worst fears of Sir Alex Ferguson and Steve McClaren were realised last night when a scan confirmed that Wayne Rooney had suffered a hairline fracture of his left foot, the third such injury of his young career. The Manchester United forward is expected to miss a number of crucial matches for club and country.

Rooney suffered the fracture in a clash with Michael Duberry as United began the defence of their Barclays Premier League title with a disappointing goalless draw at home to Reading.

A scan revealed that he had suffered a fracture, which is almost certain to rule him out of England’s critical European Championship qualifying matches at home to Israel and Russia on September 8 and 12 respectively, and potentially the return match against Russia in Moscow and the home game against Estonia in October, as well as the opening stages of United’s Premier League and Champions League campaigns.

Further tests today are likely to reveal more about Rooney’s recovery time. The club could not confirm last night whether he had fallen victim to the “curse of the metatarsal”, which has twice claimed him before - as well as David Beckham and Steven Gerrard - in which event he could be out of action for anything upwards of five weeks.

Ferguson, the United manager, can at least call on Carlos Tévez, who is now in line to make his debut away to Portsmouth on Wednesday, but for McClaren, the England head coach, Rooney’s injury is most unwelcome at a time when there are concerns over the fitness of numerous other senior players, including Gary Neville, John Terry, Beckham and Michael Owen. Peter Crouch will miss the match against Israel because of suspension.

“It started to swell up at half-time,” Ferguson said before the results of the scan were known. “There was a bit of swelling and he was in some difficulty with the pain. There was no point sending him out for the second half.”

Rooney, 21, fractured a metatarsal in his right foot during England’s Euro 2004 quarter-final against Portugal in a challenge with Jorge Andrade. He suffered a similar injury against Chelsea less than six weeks before the start of the 2006 World Cup finals and was never at his best in a tournament that ended with a red card in another quarter-final defeat by Portugal.

Without Rooney after half-time yesterday, United failed to break down a Reading team who held firm even when Dave Kitson was sent off only 37 seconds after coming on as a substitute, for a high challenge on Patrice Evra. It was a dispiriting result for United on a weekend when their principal rivals all won, albeit with difficulty. After Liverpool’s 2-1 win away to Aston Villa on Saturday, Arsenal required two late goals to beat Fulham yesterday, while Chelsea endured some nervous moments at Stamford Bridge before beating Birmingham City 3-2.

“It’s a disappointing result for us, but it’s only day one,” Ferguson said. “I’ve got absolutely no criticism of the team at all. I thought they did absolutely everything they could. We just couldn’t convert our chances.”