Erik ten Hag explains why Anthony Martial missed Man Utd vs Crystal Palace

Erik ten Hag has said Anthony Martial missed Manchester United’s Premier League fixture with Crystal Palace as he suffered a ‘setback’ from a recent injury.

The knock meant Martial was a notable absence when the teams were announced an hour before kick-off at Old Trafford, especially given he came off the bench in the midweek Carabao Cup win over Nottingham Forest.

Martial missed the four matches prior to that through injury and has apparently suffered a recurrence of the issue since Wednesday’s game, meaning he has been forced to sit out 20 games in total this campaign.

“He had a setback from the game when he returned,” Ten Hag told MUTV before the Palace game. “He thought he could build up, but he dropped a little bit back. We have to wait, we have to be patient not to force it.

“We make a selection,” he added. “I think we have a good team today. Rashy [Marcus Rashford] back and [David] de Gea back.”

“We know what to do because we dropped some points last two games in the Premier League and you can’t get them back, but we have to learn the lessons. We dropped them in the last minutes, so we need a better performance. We need more intensity and we have to keep going to the 90 minutes.”

United also welcomed Diogo Dalot back to the squad on Saturday following a recent injury, while Marcel Sabitzer was named among the substitutes along with Jadon Sancho.

United starting XI: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Fred; Antony. Fernandes, Rashford; Weghorst.