More than halfway through the international break, it won’t be long until Manchester United return to Premier League action. The next match is Saturday, when they host surprising Leicester City at Old Trafford. With an extensive list of injury and fitness concerns, let’s take a spin through where we currently stand on each and every United player.
Central defender Eric Bailly is a long term injury absentee, but according to ESPN, he is “hopeful he could return to training in around two months and make his first team comeback after the November international break.” That’s pretty big news when you consider that Bailly was initially ruled out for the remainder of the calendar year.
Right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka missed his first chance to play for England, as he withdrew from camp due to an unspecified back injury. At this time there are no reports indicating he’ll be out of action for a prolonged period of time, so one should expect him to be available on the weekend.
Forward/midfielder Jesse Lingard also came back from England camp early, because of an illness.
Midfielder Paul Pogba withdrew from international duty with France, and was replaced on the national side by Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi. Nothing to worry about there as it was just precautionary.
Left back Luke Shaw and forward Anthony Martial both got hurt in the loss to Crystal Palace, and both were supposedly in contention (although Shaw had been ruled for a month initially) for the draw at Southampton, but neither man played.
Both are doubts, but not ruled out entirely for Saturday. We’ll likely learn more about their status on Friday when United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gives his weekly news briefing.
Defender Diogo Dalot, who has seen little action since he moved over in the 2018 summer transfer window (and has yet to feature this season) has journeyed to China for treatment on his hip injury, spending 10 days with Shanghai SIPG injury specialist Eduardo Santos; according to ESPN FC.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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