Manchester United won 2-0 at Huddersfield Town yesterday, and they did it without: Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Daley Blind, Marouane Fellaini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. All eight players ruled out with injuries and Paul Pogba also missed the contest from falling ill overnight.
Obviously, this creates a serious amount of concern heading into Wednesday night’s UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie at Sevilla. United manager Jose Mourinho could have a serious shortage of legitimate first team level players for selection.
“I didn’t rest one single player so we had today every player available here,” Mourinho said after the 2-0 win over Huddersfield at the John Smith’s Stadium.
“I didn’t rest anyone. I brought two kids that played on Friday 90 minutes (for the U23 team) because I don’t have another player, so we arrive at this crucial moment with some problems.”
Fellaini and Ibrahimovic are long term absentees, while Rashford and Herrera are reportedly in a race to be fit for the road leg of the knockout round clash. There are hopes that Valencia will return in time as well. Pogba may not be well enough in time for the midweek clash while Jones and Rojo are definitely out.
“Can we recover some of them to Wednesday? I believe so,I think Rashford, Herrera, Valencia,” Mourinho said.
“I think they have a chance. Paul, I don’t know. Marco Rojo, Phil Jones, Marouane, Zlatan I don’t think they have any chance.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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