Man Utd predicted XI to face Rayo Vallecano - Ronaldo, Eriksen & Martinez expected to start

Erik ten Hag has confirmed Cristiano Ronaldo will play some part for Manchester United in Sunday’s friendly against Rayo Vallecano.

The veteran forward hasn’t been involved in any of the Red Devils’ previous five pre-season fixtures and only returned to training this week.

Ronaldo was allowed to miss his return to summer training at the beginning of July due to ‘family reasons’, although no explanation was given as to why he has been absent in the subsequent weeks.

The former Real Madrid and Juventus man has, of course, been heavily linked with a move away from United this summer, a possibility which appears less and less likely as the weeks continue.

However, speaking after the Red Devils fell to a 1-0 loss against Atletico Madrid in Oslo on Saturday, Ten Hag revealed Ronaldo will be involved in some capacity in the club’s final warm-up game ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

“Tomorrow he will be in the squad. We’ll see how long he can play,” Ten Hag told United’s website.

He also revealed that an entirely different team will start for the clash with Rayo at Old Trafford, from the XI which played in Norway.

“The players who played today from the start, they will not come on tomorrow. So tomorrow we will have a different starting XI. But there are players who came on who can start tomorrow.”

That does rule out several big names such as Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, but could see summer recruits Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen make their Old Trafford debuts for the Red Devils.

Here’s who we think could start against Rayo…