Solskjaer suggests forgotten Man Utd man could feature at Liverpool

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has posted a positive update on the fitness of Eric Bailly, with the Ivorian pencilled in to make his return to the squad as soon as this Sunday against Liverpool.

The Ivorian defender sustained a serious knee injury in a pre-season clash against Tottenham and had surgery in August to repair the injury, with the player yet to see any first-team action as a result so far this season.

However, the player made his long-awaited return to action for United’s Under-23s recently as Newcastle were beaten 2-1, with Bailly coming through 60 minutes of the action unscathed.

And while Wednesday’s FA Cup third-round replay at home to Wolves is likely to come too soon for the former Villarreal man, Solskjaer has indicated that Sunday’s trip to face league leaders Liverpool at Anfield could see the centre-half return to the matchday squad.

Bailly is scheduled to have another run out in a reserve-team match on Tuesday and if he comes through with no further issues, the United manager has indicated he could come into his thoughts for the match against their old foes.

“He’s very close, might be back for the weekend, got a game arranged today for the reserves, hopefully get 90 mins so might be ready for Liverpool,” Solskjaer said.

“Probably similar squad to what we were this weekend against Norwich. Eric (Bailly) playing today so he is close to full fitness but still a few days early this one.”

Solskjaer is likely to name a strong line-up for the clash with Wolves with the trophy perhaps now representing their best chance of trophy success this season and with a fourth-round against either Watford or Tranmere lying in wait.

“We’ve played them so many times so we’re gonna be facing a team that know more or less everything about us, we’ve got them in a couple of weeks in the league,” he added.

“We played a decent first half last week, second half was disappointing, but at home we wanna make sure we go through, this tournament is one we dream about winning when we are young, loved my time in finals and winning trophies so we wanna go through.”

Solskjaer, meanwhile, offered something of a terse reply when questioned upon whether United had made any progress in their bid to sign Bruno Fernandes.

“I’ve got no transfer updates, so no,” he told reporters at Carrington. “If we get something that we can tell you about we will but I’ve got no news now.”

Sporting, meanwhile, are reported to have made a cheeky enquiry about the possibility of taking a ready-made replacement from United as part of the negotiations.