Oxford United defender Jake Wright will miss the busy Christmas and New Year period after X-rays and a scan showed he has sustained one of football’s most common injuries – a fractured metatarsal.

The U’s centre back damaged his foot before half-time in last week’s 2-1 win at Chesterfield, and tests have revealed he has a fractured fifth metatarsal.

The former Bradford, Halifax and Brighton centre back is set to be out of action for six to eight weeks, which rules him out of the four games in nine days over the holiday period.

United manager Chris Wilder said: “The results of the scan are obviously disappointing for Jake and for us.

“He had worked very hard to get back to fitness and get back into the team and it is bad timing for this to happen.

“However, as we showed in the rest of the game at Chesterfield this is a squad game and it means others will get a chance to show what they can do.”

Harry Worley replaced Wright at the B2net Stadium and was outstanding alongside loan signing Ben Futcher as the U’s kept a clean sheet in the second half against the npower League Two leaders.

The metatarsal fracture has been very common in football in the past five years.

Several high-profile players have suffered the injury, including David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, and Steven Gerrard.