Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed the severity of Manchester United’s current injury crisis.
Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw will be unavailable against Leicester in a game United cannot really afford to lose.
Solskjaer says that is likely to necessitate first-team returns for Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic and Ashley Young, who have been pushed out for a more youthful side.
“The treatment room’s been busy and still is,” he said. “So we don’t really know who’s gonna be available. There’s maybe Aaron [Wan-Bissaka], maybe Jesse [Lingard] and I think maybe that’s it from the ones that pulled out but I can’t promise those two will be available either.
“Leicester is always a tough game, as a team, a club wanting to push into the top four, they’ve got good players, a good manager, a proven top manager. Brendan’s teams always play with football and we’ve got to play well to get the three points.
“Pogba won’t be fit, no. Unless he’s had a miraculous recovery overnight from yesterday to today or tonight to tomorrow, he’s not been ready to do 100% training, no.
On Martial, he added: “We hope more can be ready for West Ham next week and Paul and Anthony are in that category, I think they’ll be ready for then and can’t say more than that really.
“You’ve got players who can come in with loads of experience.
“Juan (Mata), Nemanja (Matic) and Ash (Young), who didn’t start the first game and have got to step up and the average age might go up.”