Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof played through back pain in Manchester United’s goalless draw with AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League last week, and in doing so found himself on the sidelines during his side’s miserable 1-0 loss at Newcastle United on Sunday.
Youngster Axel Tuanzebe played pretty well in place of Lindelof, but unfortunately, there weren’t many other positives for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men on the weekend. Lindelof is currently on international duty with Sweden, who have European Championship qualifiers coming up versus Malta and Spain.
Lindelof declared himself fit to face Malta on Saturday night, and with that statement, should be ready and available for selection when United host Liverpool a week from Sunday in the first of their two annual grudge matches.
Provided of course, he doesn’t suffer a setback while on international duty.
“It happened on Thursday,” the central defender said of the injury in an interview with Swedish channel TV4.
“I haven’t been able to train or take part in the last club game, so that’s it, but it gets better and better every day. I get good treatment here and good help with the national team.”
It remains to be seen though whether or not Lindelof will play, as he’s yet to train post injury.
“Do I play? It’s up to (Sweden manager) Janne Andersson and obviously up to my body. If I feel it’s holding up, I want to play both matches if Janne wants it.”
It’s possible Lindelof won’t be risked. We’ll just have to wait until this weekend to see. United will certainly need all hands on deck for their battle against the table toppers. The Red Devils are without a host of key players as it is, and they’ll enter this clash 11 places below their arch-rivals in the table.
Liverpool, who have won all eight matches so far and have an 8 point lead at the top of the table, are also likely to get their starting goalkeeper, Alisson, back for this one.
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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