Man Utd vs Tottenham injury news as four ruled out & four are doubts, but two return for United

Erik ten Hag has three major fitness doubts heading into Wednesday’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

The Manchester United manager was without Christian Eriksen for the weekend draw with Newcastle United, and struggled without the Dane’s composure in possession. Ten Hag confirmed before the match that Eriksen would be unavailable through illness, with Marcus Rashford limited to a place on the substitutes’ bench for the same reason.

The England forward came on with around 20 minutes remaining and should have recovered sufficiently to start on Wednesday, while Ten Hag will be hoping the same is true of Eriksen. The former Tottenham man could also partner Scott McTominay in the midweek fixture, with the 25-year-old suspended for Sunday’s draw with the Magpies.

Another who is a doubt is Anthony Martial. The striker picked up a back injury against Everton which ruled him out of the last two matches. But speaking last week, Ten Hag said Martial was a possibility to return against Newcastle, although he did ultimately miss the game.

The Dutchman also revealed on Thursday that Harry Maguire could return to training soon. “Harry Maguire will not make this, but doesn’t take long,” Ten Hag explained. “Maybe next week he will be back in the team training, or over the next week.”

The defender is not expected to be fit enough to start in the clash with Spurs, but might be an option from the bench, especially with Raphael Varane struggling with an ongoing fitness issue that prevented him starting in the three matches prior to Newcastle.

Elsewhere, Donny van de Beek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are long-term absentees, while Martin Dubravka should return to the squad. The goalkeeper, who is yet to play for the Red Devils since his deadline-day move, was ineligible at the weekend against his parent club Newcastle.

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Antonio Conte has already confirmed Richarlison will miss the game due to injury, although it’s still uncertain how severe the injury is. “For sure against Manchester United he’s out,” the former Chelsea boss admitted on Monday. “He felt something in his calf and he won’t be available.

“I think he needs a bit of time to recover. It’s a pity because we are talking about a player who gives us a lot of quality but is also strong and improves our intensity. He will have an MRI scan to understand it tomorrow, we hope it is not serious.”

Conte also said he is unsure whether Dejan Kulusevski is going to be fit in time for the game at Old Trafford. “Kulusevski is working,” he explained. “We will see. We have to go day by day with him and the medical department are working a lot to try to recover him but we don’t know for the game against United.

“I think the medical department are working to recover him,” he added. But at the same time, sometimes there are situations that you have to go a bit slowly, and not to accelerate the process. Because sometimes if you accelerate the process, you risk only to worsen the situation.”

Elsewhere, Emerson Royal remains out due to the red card he picked up against Arsenal, meaning Matt Doherty could continue at right-wing-back, a position he played on Saturday.