Early injury news ahead of Manchester United’s Premier League clash with Chelsea – Man United News And Transfer News

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Manchester United’s 2023/24 season seems set to continue in misery after a brief glimmer of hope that things were on the mend.

Two interrelated things have dogged the Red Devils all season, injuries and inconsistent performances. An unbeaten run at the start of this year suggested that the latter was finally behind them, and the recent returns of long-term absentees Lisandro Martinez, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Mason Mount was a sign that the squad was finally returning to something approaching full strength.

However, Saturday’s abject display against Brentford put paid to hopes that Erik ten Hag’s men were ready to mount a serious assault on the Champions League places. After a historic FA Cup win over Liverpool, the lack of effort, aggression, ideas, organisation and, it seemed, interest at the Gtech on Saturday was hard to fathom as Gary Neville said.

And gearing up to Thursday’s Premier League clash with fellow underperformers Chelsea, Ten Hag also has to contend with yet another injury crisis, with seven first team stars doubtful for, or definitely out of, the trip to Stamford Bridge.

Defence, once again, is the area hit hardest. Reserve keeper Altay Bayindir has been unavailable with a muscle strain and there have been no signs from the club that he is returning.

Luke Shaw could play again this season according to Ten Hag, but is not yet in training and Tyrell Malacia is out for the entire campaign.

Both starting centre backs, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof, came off injured against Brentford and are both unlikely to make the trip to London. Varane described his own injury as “not too bad” to journalists after the game but Lindelof appeared to pull a hamstring, which will almost certainly rule him out.

Jonny Evans is also rated as having just a 25% chance of making the game after missing the last few weeks with an inspecified injury.

Elsewhere, the midfield appears to be injury free and in attack, just Anthony Martial remains unavailable. United should welcome back Amad Diallo to the squad after missing the Brentford game due to suspension.

For their part, Chelsea have even worse injury worries than United, with 11 potentially missing. Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, Reece James, Carney Chukwuemeka, Christopher Nkunku, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah, Robert Sanchez and Lesley Ugochukwu are all ruled out, and Ben Chilwell is rated as just 50:50 for the game.

(All injury details from premierinjuries.com.)

Before the season started it would have been hard to believe that come April 4th, this match would be contested between the teams in sixth and 11th places in the Premier League. On paper, they should have been competing for Champions League spots at least, and possibly even the title.

Whilst it is true that the horrendous injuries sustained by both sides throughout the campaign have taken their toll, there is enough class in both squads to have expected a far better campaign. Normally when two Premier League giants compete we ask “who will want it more?”. In this case, perhaps the more pertinent question is “who will self-destruct less today?”

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