Manchester United interim manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer dropped a bombshell at his press conference today- young stellar forwards Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard will be out injured for 2-3 weeks; meaning they’ll miss both the FA Cup 5th round clash at Chelsea Monday night and the league clash at home against Liverpool next weekend.
Both suffered muscular injuries in the loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night. For Martial, it’s a groin issue and with Lingard a hamstring problem. It turns out the home loss to PSG in midweek damaged a lot more than just United’s UEFA Champions League campaign.
“I think they’ll be out for two to three weeks,” Solskjaer told a room of reporters today.
“Then you’re looking at young players and it’s Mason Greenwood’s time to step in but he’s injured unfortunately, out for a couple of weeks as well. Sometimes that’s how the luck goes but Mason will get his chance.”
With that timeline, the duo will also miss the league clash at Crystal Palace on February 27 and a home match versus Southampton on March 2. They could also miss the reverse fixture at PSG on March 6, plus a crunch clash for top four positioning at Arsenal on March 10. The trio of Lingard, Martial and Marcus Rashford has been arguably the most productive options in attack for Solskjaer, so now he really has a major task ahead of him.
Being without 2/3 of his favorite selection options in the final third, we’ll really see the Norwegian’s managerial chops on display over the course of the next 2-3 weeks. You already know he wants the full time job; Martial and some of the United players want him to get it too.
Now is the chance for him to truly earn it.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.comand Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.