Interview: Cristiano Ronaldo 'obsession' helped me overcome Man United injury struggles to become undroppable

It's impossible to talk about Manchester United's season without mentioning the injuries.

It has sometimes been too convenient an excuse when standards haven't been met, but it has certainly been a relevant one for much of the campaign. There have been 65 separate cases of injury or illness that have caused a senior player to miss a competitive match so far this campaign, with these issues felt the hardest in defence.

In 51 matches this season they have used 15 different centre-back partnerships and not had a recognised left-back available in 31 of them. What is perceived to be the strongest centre-back pairing of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane has been used just five times. The hope is that it will be used for a sixth, and final time against Man City in the FA Cup final this weekend.

It makes the heroics of a select few players that more impressive. Alejandro Garnacho is the only player to have featured in every matchday squad this season and Andre Onana is the only player who has played in all but one match. Garnacho has played in all but two of the matches, as has Diogo Dalot. Yet the Portuguese full-back has played almost 800 minutes more than him, many times out of position on the left side of defence. He has sacrificed himself for the greater good of his team.

"Yeah I’ve become a bit more obsessed about being physically and mentally available for every game," Dalot tells reporters on a dreary day at Carrington. "During the early stages of my careers I had some problems with injuries so that was something that was consuming me because the first step for you being able to play is being available and if you’re not you’re not going to play.

"I could give you a list of things I do every day but basically it’s just prioritise the normal things that everybody talks about. But I think the secret is being consistent, doing it everything single day. Which I think is the most difficult thing and the thing that I’ve changed the most is the consistency. I’ve been doing all these things; the sleeping, the sleeping patterns, the nutrition, the recovery. Everything that engloves this. I think these are the three main aspects. I think it has been the consistency and I’ve been doing this."

The 25-year-old was recovering from a meniscus injury in 2018 and his first two seasons saw plenty of fitness setbacks, yet in a season ravaged by injury, he has somehow remained injury free. A lot of that is down to his own discipline and consistency. He focuses religiously on recovery and his diet, having had his eyes opened to the importance of both during a productive season on loan with AC Milan three years ago.

Another key element came together at the end of that season. He received his first call-up to the Portugal side for the rescheduled European Championship and witnessed first hand the elite professionalism of compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo. A few weeks later, they would become teammates at club level as well.

"So I became a little bit more obsessed, especially after meeting Cristiano and spending a lot of time with him. Having this obsession about being available. Not focusing on the quality of your football first - first ensuring you’re available and after that it was a routine for me: try to evolve in other things. Training even better, playing well, that game part comes after when you’re mentally and physically ready to play a lot of games. Then the confidence grows and you get a lot of minutes and after that you try to do the same things and the right things all the time."

It is impossible to ignore the positive impact Bruno Fernandes has had on him as well. Until the start of this month, he had famously never missed a club match in his career because of injury. He was sorely missed in defeats to both Crystal Palace and Arsenal, not only in terms of individual quality, but also the unquantifiable leadership and mentality he brings to the side.

Dalot said of his compatriot: "Obviously, the standard is the maximum level that you can get. For players, for the manager. He’s been one of the cases that obviously… he is showing that he’s doing everything that he can to play for the club and to help the club. He’s been available every game and it shows that if you are available, you are closest to play games.

"This is the kind of way that I think every club, every squad should go because if you have 70-80% of the players available every season, I think it’s going to be a lot easier than if you have 10-15%."

It is hard to imagine now, but Dalot was an unused substitute in last year's final, watching on as his side fell short. There is no way he will be missing out this weekend.

Ten Hag will hope the injury situation eases up ahead of their Wembley showdown this weekend, but there will be no excuses for a lack of heart and will to win this weekend. While the tactical battle will no doubt go a long way to determining who emerges victorious under the famous Wembley arch, Dalot believes the final could be influenced by who really wants it more on the day.

"Obviously, you can talk about the tactical side of it but I think it comes a lot from your heart, from your head, to be able to be at your best level, be able to suffer - because there are going to be times when you have to suffer. And at the same time, when you have the ball, have the personality to play because you can play against City, you can have the ball against City. They are very good at counter-press but you can still find spaces and dominate the game and that's what we should need to do on Saturday: without the ball, ready to suffer when we have to suffer and defend well, be compact, and when we have the ball try to hurt them in the spaces.

"They dominate so much the last few years they create this fear factor, I think. But when you're playing Man United-Man City, I don't believe they come in with the idea that we fear them. They know that we're gonna wanna win that game so they're gonna be at their best level. And we have to be at our best level. That's the perfect way you can approach a game like this but, at the same time, they know we can beat them, we have done it before so on Saturday we have to do it again."