Diego Simeone brings his Atletico Madrid side to England this week as they take on Manchester United at Old Trafford and the 51-year-old will be sweating buckets before the 2nd leg.
The Round of 16 tie is perfectly balanced at 1-1 meaning Atletico still have a lot of work to do and given that there are no away goals, the La Liga side might have to score multiple goals on Tuesday night.
Given how poor Man United has been in recent weeks, one would imagine that Atletico Madrid will have their tails up but Simeone has problems of his own because he is missing several first-team players right now.
Players like Cunha are already missing for several matches and over the previous two gameweeks, several other players have also joined this ill-fated list.
Sime Vrsaljko picked up a thigh muscle injury in Atletico Madrid’s win over Real Betis and as per Spanish newspaper Marca he looks set to miss the 2nd leg this week.
🚨🏥| Šime Vrsaljko is RULED OUT for the game against Manchester United next week. [@medinamarca🎖]
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) March 7, 2022
Angel Correa is another player who had suffered an injury in that same game but thankfully, he made a return off the bench last Friday so he will be ready for a start at Old Trafford.
If this was not enough then Thomas Lemar also picked up a muscle injury in the Real Betis game and he is not expected to return before the end of this month.
Thomas Lemar has suffered a muscle injury and Atleti have given no timeline on his return.
Los Colchoneros are averaging over 1 injury per game this season. pic.twitter.com/huuGasESew
— Football España (@footballespana_) March 9, 2022
To make matters worse, centre-back Jose Maria Gimenez suffered a calf injury, during their 2-1 victory over Cadiz on Friday and he too is a major doubt right now. As of now, we are not sure if this injury is serious or not and we will only know the details when Simeone talks about it in his press conference.
Here’s the list of Atletico Madrid injuries vs Man United:
Thomas Lemar – Thigh Injury
Vrsaljko – Hip Injury
Jose Maria Gimenez – Calf Injury
Daniel Wass – Ligament Injury
Matheus Cunha – Knee Injury
Hermoso – Muscle Injury
Kondogbia – Muscle Injury
Carrasco – Suspension(Red Card)
The Atletico Madrid manager does have the players to name a strong-enough starting line up on Tuesday night but with so many players out injured, Simeone will have little to no bench strength.
If his preferred players cannot do the job then the 51-year-old will find it really difficult to get inspiration off the bench.
