At best, Manchester United will be without several key players when they travel to AFC Bournemouth tomorrow. At worst, they could have a full blow injury crisis, with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having a total selection headache.
Central defender Victor Lindelof and striker Marcus Rashford are both doubts for Saturday after having been forced off in the 2-1 EFL Cup win at Chelsea on Wednesday night. Lindelof’s partner in central defense, Harry Maguire, was hobbling at the end of victory, so clearly this win came with a price. These injury concerns are piled up on top of the list of long term injury absentees.
Midfielders Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba, defenders Luke Shaw, Axel Tuanzebe, Diogo Dalot, Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah remain out until after the international break.
“It’s still early,” Solskjaer said at his Friday news conference (video embedded above). “Hopefully we can get them back on the pitch [at Bournemouth]. They had some treatment on Thursday, a little more treatment today [Friday], a light session and hopefully they’re ready.”
“I can’t exactly tell you exactly now.”
United go for their fourth away win in 10 days, having broken out of a drought that saw them with no previous road victories since March. Paralleling that, Rashford now has four goals in his last four games, having previously been in a one goal in nine games scoring drought.
The return of Anthony Martial from injury has had a direct positive impact on the young forward.
“Since Anthony’s come back Marcus has blossomed,” the United boss said. “He’s probably happier facing goal, being direct, driving at people, taking players on rather than [a] target man with [his] back to goal but Marcus wants to master all the skills.”
Bournemouth haven’t won since September and didn’t score in October.
AFC Bournemouth vs Manchester United FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday Nov 2, 1:30 BST, Dean Court
Manchester United Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Google Result Probability: Manchester United 44%, Draw 27%, AFC Bournemouth 29%
Form Guide: Manchester United- WDLDL AFC Bournemouth- DDLDW
Prediction: Manchester United 1, AFC Bournemouth 0
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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