Man Utd confirm key star set to miss games v Fulham, Man City & Everton through injury

Manchester United have confirmed Rasmus Hojlund will miss the next two to three weeks with a muscular injury.

The striker has scored eight in his last eight games and his absence is a huge blow to Erik ten Hag ahead of Saturday's game against Fulham, while he'll also be unavailable for next week's Manchester derby and the upcoming games against Nottingham Forest and Everton.

In a statement, United said: "Rasmus Hojlund will miss Manchester United’s Premier League game against Fulham on Saturday due to a muscle injury, which is expected to keep him out for 2-3 weeks."

Asked about the latest injury, Ten Hag said: "It’s a small injury. Two, three weeks. It happened and that is the risk of playing high intensity and training. It is not a big injury but he has to wait one, two or three weeks."

The injury comes amid a spate of recent problems for the Red Devils, with Luke Shaw out for a few months, while Lisandro Martinez will not be back until April. Ten Hag bemoaned his inability to select a regular side earlier this season, an issue that seemed to have been addressed when Harry Maguire, Martinez, Shaw, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen returned to the team in January.

But the recent injuries mean Ten Hag will be without three definite starters over the coming weeks. Hojlund's injury is compounded by Anthony Martial's lack of availability, with the Frenchman out for a few months as he recovers from a groin operation in January.

With both out, Ten Hag doesn't have a natural option to select up top and he's expected to play Marcus Rashford in that role, despite the England international failing to impress when playing centrally this season. It's a similar scenario at left-back, with Shaw and Tyrell Malacia's injuries meaning United don't have a left-back available for Saturday's game against Fulham.

Asked about the injuries on Friday, Ten Hag said: "Of course, that is an issue and other clubs have this, but we have to to deal with it. I have the feeling we will deal with it better than in the autumn. It is an issue but the depth of the squad has to be proved.

"Other players will get opportunities to show their qualities," he added. "We have the confidence they can and that’s why we constructed this squad when we went into the January window, we saw that players are progressing and developing who didn’t have the chance in the first half of the season, or were injured. Now they get opportunities."