Worried Solskjaer makes ‘unheard of’ claim, as Maguire injury details emerge
Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirmed that Harry Maguire twisted his ankle in Sunday’s win over Aston Villa.
The Red Devils captain had to go off after 78 minutes, following a challenge with Anwar El Ghazi. Indeed, the injury dampened United’s afternoon, in which they came from behind to win 3-1. Bertrand Traore gave the hosts the lead, but Bruno Fernandes’ penalty led a second-half resurgence.
Maguire has proved a rock-solid figure for United and his early departure forced him to miss his first Premier League minutes since moving to Old Trafford.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Solskjaer admitted that he faces a nervous wait to discover the extent of the centre-back’s problems.
“The boy [El Ghazi] landed on top of him and he twisted his ankle,” the manager said (via The Guardian).
“Harry has been excellent and it’s almost unheard of, the minutes he’s played without missing him.
“We’ve a [Europa League] final to look forward to and hopefully it will be with Harry; it might be a few weeks, it might be a couple of days, we don’t know.
“Hopefully it won’t be too bad, but I’m not a doctor, and we’ve got to scan him on Monday.
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“He may be available on Thursday [against Liverpool], but I don’t know, it might be longer. I’ll tell you more on Thursday.”
United face Leicester on Tuesday before Liverpool’s visit, as part of their gruelling end-of-season schedule, made so because of the rearrangement of the clash with their arch-rivals.
Solskjaer had previously stressed the need for caution to avoid injury and seeing Maguire go down – albeit through an impact as opposed to muscle problems – will ramp up his worries.
Solskjaer urges Man Utd caution
“They’re capable of doing Sunday and then Thursday, but to put Tuesday in too is demanding too much of them,” he added.
“At this level, playing that many games is impossible. It’s physically impossible, and I’ve got to make sure I don’t run the risk of them getting injured.
“The boys who played Thursday against Roma and today will not play 90 minutes on Tuesday, that’s for sure.
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“We’ll sit down on Tuesday morning and see who’s ready. But we’ve shown they can go again as a group so many times. But we won’t be training, we’ll just see who’s ready to play on Tuesday.”
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