Ralf Rangnick confirms key Man Utd injury boost vs Brighton and hits back at ‘classless’ Lingard accusation

Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has confirmed that captain Harry Maguire will be available for the Red Devils’ Premier League fixture against Brighton this weekend.

The England international has been sidelined with a knee injury of late, and missed the recent matches against Chelsea and Brentford.

Speaking in a press conference on Friday, however, Rangnick revealed that the defender has returned to training and will feature in his squad on Saturday evening.

He said: “Harry is back in training.

“He trained the whole week, since the day after or the second day after the Brentford game, he resumed for training. So, he will be available for tomorrow and be part of the group.”

The German also provided updates on Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford, with the latter set to miss out due to illness.

He said: “Edinson [Cavani] is in training, obviously he came on as a sub.

“Marcus Rashford will be missing, he has caught bronchitis with high temperatures so he won’t be able to be part of the group.”

Rangnick added: “We have a question mark behind Eric Bailly, he called the doctor this morning and had some back problems – problems with his back – and he’s being checked right now. We’ll have to see if he will be able to train afterwards.”

What did Ralf Rangnick say about Jesse Lingard?

The United boss also took time to address the ongoing situation involving Jesse Lingard, who is expected to leave the club upon the expiration of his contract at the end of the season.

The playmaker was an unused substitute in his side’s last home game of the campaign against Brentford on Monday evening, and made headlines in the aftermath of the 3-0 win following an Instagram post from his brother, Louie Scott. In it, Scott described Rangnick’s refusal to introduce him for a final farewell to his boyhood club as “classless”.

In response, the manager said: “To start with, I think in the last couple of weeks under my tenure, he has played far more games than he used to before I came.

“Number two, on gameday against Chelsea, he contacted me in the hotel and asked me to release him from the game and release him from the training session the following day or two days after the Chelsea game for some personal, family reasons and I also allowed him to do that.

“This was also the reason that, with only three subs - unfortunately, in all the other leagues you have five subs - I had to take a decision between bringing on Edinson Cavani, Jesse Lingard or the young Alejandro Garnacho who I would have loved to bring on and give a chance, having been 3-0 up.

“I took the decision to bring on Edinson for the very reasons I explained to you.

“Had I not brought on Edinson Cavani, maybe someone else would have posted [on social media] it was ‘classless’ not to bring on Edinson Cavani or maybe someone else would have posted why didn’t the manager bring on the young Alejandro Garnacho?

“With only three subs and two already done, or the first one had already been done, you have to take a decision.

“This will not be to the liking of everybody, it’s also part of the game.”

United’s game against Brighton at the Amex Stadium will kick off at 5.30pm on Saturday evening.