Manchester United confirm four injury doubts for Man City clash with just three senior defenders fit
Man Utd face Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley this weekend.
Manchester United could be without four defenders when they face Man City in the Community Shield this weekend.
Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw are all doubts for the match, but Lisandro Martinez is set to be involved after he returned to training earlier in the week.
Maguire missed United’s final pre-season match against Liverpool last weekend, while Victor Lindelof was replaced at half-time of the defeat as a precaution. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was taken off in the closing minutes of the friendly encounter while Luke Shaw has only just returned to training after his exploits at the European Championship.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Ten Hag was asked for an update on his team: “Harry Maguire missed the game, was a precaution but is still a question mark for Saturday, so we have training, we have to see whether he is fit enough or not to be available.
He added: “Victor played but also he’s a question mark and also Azza and Luke Shaw are both question mark, we have to assess them tomorrow. We think about Licha to be involved in the game.”
It means we could see a makeshift United side on Saturday afternoon, with Ten Hag still managing the return of the players who were involved in international tournaments during the summer.
Ten Hag confirmed the return of those players would be judged on a case-by-case basis. He said: “That is individual based, everyone has a different background, we put them on off-season programmes but they have different starts while we were in USA, we will assess them, make a decision whether they start, come from the bench or whether they don’t play.”
United currently only have three senior defenders who are fit with Martinez, Jonny Evans and Diogo Dalot all set to be involved. Harry Amass could start the game at left-back.