The versatile Ashley Young has seen himself utilized in even more positions down the stretch of the 2016-17 season as Manchester United are in the midst of a deeply severe injury crisis. The Red Devils, alive in four different competitions most of the season, and in three for much of it, are experiencing first hand the price to be paid for playing 57 matches and counting.
Young played both left and right back against Swansea City, for a team that now has zero fit senior team center backs for Thursday night’s UEFA Europa League semifinal clash.
United will be without seven first team players as they travel to Celta Vigo to begin the away leg of their semifinal tie.
Ashley Young said in an interview with MUTV: “I think there were a lot of tired legs in the second half, but there are still a lot of points to play for.”
“We have to recover and we have another game to look forward to. Getting the injuries isn’t ideal, but we have to keep plugging away.”
Young also lamented the plethora of lost opportunities that have come from United dropping all those points at home.
“After 10 draws at home, you think about the points that we’ve lost and thrown away and where we could have been in the league.”
“A lot of people have been talking about fourth spot in the league but I thought we could go even higher than that. We’ve got a lot of tough games but as long as we’re prepared I’m sure we can go and get the points that we need.”
Paul Pogba is expected back and Juan Mata should start on Thursday, but United have lost Marcos Rojo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Timothy Fosu-Mensah for the season. United also lost Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw to injury on Sunday, while they will still be without Chris Smalling and Phil Jones (long term absentees) for the Europa semi.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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