Man United take on Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday and before the match, Erik ten Hag has delivered some mixed injury news.
Varane and Mason Mount are both ruled out for this weekend but the manager has revealed that the duo is making good progress and should be back before schedule.
However, both Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof are fully fit and will start against the Brighton game.
This is a big boost for Erik ten Hag because both of them went off the pitch in the Arsenal match and if they had not been fit then the Manchester United manager would have had to rely on the duo of Maguire and Jonny Evans in central defence.
Lindelof and Lisandro Martinez have been more or less a solid pairing in defence but the blow for Man United is that Sofyan Amrabat is out with a minor injury.
The midfielder withdrew from the Morocco squad and he is going to miss the Brighton game but his manager is optimistic that he is going to be fit for the upcoming UCL clash against Bayern Munich.
The manager told the press: “Amrabat, he came back unfortunately with the injury, so he will not be available for tomorrow [Saturday], but I think, on the short notice [soon], yes. And I’m sure we will all get joy from them.”
All the Man United fans were eager to see Sofyan Amrabat in action but they will have to wait for one more week.
Thankfully, the injury is not serious so the midfielder will be back in action very soon but against a team like Brighton, Amrabat would have been the ideal central midfielder.
Casemiro and Christian Eriksen will most likely have to pair up in central midfield on Saturday but unfortunately, both of them do not have the legs to stop the fluid Brighton attacks.
Antony and Jadon Sancho are both unavailable so there’s a chance the Man United will push Bruno Fernandes out wide on the right, bring Eriksen into the No 10 role and then choose Scott McTominay as the second central midfield.
The Seagulls play a top brand of football so it’s very important to break down their quick passing and for that Ten Hag will need two central midfielders who can run and chase endlessly. Eriksen is a creative midfielder who is not good at chasing back while Casemiro looks like he is fatigued and out of ideas this season. The pair have huffed and puffed during the first four matches of the season and against Brighton, they are more likely to fail than to come out with flying colours.
McTominay has been doing really well for Scotland and because Amrabat is unavailable, ETH could and should bring him into the starting XI.
