Man Utd boss confirms triple injury blow ahead of Arsenal showdown

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed Marcus Rashford, Diogo Dalot and Angel Gomes are all set to miss Manchester United’s huge Premier League clash with Arsenal on Monday night.

Rashford started during United’s 2-0 defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium last Sunday afternoon but was forced off midway through the second half after suffering a groin injury.

Solskjaer said after the game at the weekend that he feared Rashford was facing a number of weeks on the sidelines but the United boss has now provided a more positive update on the striker’s fitness.

Speaking ahead of Man Utd’s penalty shoot-out win over Rochdale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, Solskjaer said Rashford’s injury wasn’t ‘very, very bad’ and said he’s already on the road to recovery.

However, the Norwegian coach has all-but ruled Rashford out of Monday’s clash with Arsenal after saying he hopes the England international will be available again before the October international break.

After facing Arsenal at Old Trafford on Monday, United travel to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League next Thursday night before taking on Newcastle United at St James’ Park the following Sunday. The international break then kicks-in on October 7th so it seems Rashford is now aiming to feature against AZ or Newcastle before the two-week hiatus.

Dalot and Gomes were initially expected to feature against Rochdale last night but were left out of the squad with Solskjaer later confirming the duo were forced to miss the League Cup clash due to unspecified injuries.

Both players have now been ruled out of Man Utd’s showdown with Arsenal but Solskjaer is hoping they’ll be available for the Europa League trip to AZ Alkmaar next week.

Solskjaer is quoted as saying by the Manchester Evening News:

“They [Dalot and Gomes] are injured. They haven’t trained the last couple days, unfortunately. Hopefully they can be back for Alkmaar next week, that is what we are hoping.”

“He [Rashford] is recovering, he is not very, very bad so we hope to see him before international break.”

It will be a big blow for Man Utd to not have Rashford available against Arsenal as his absence would leave Solskjaer short of options up front – especially if Anthony Martial fails to recover from a thigh injury that’s kept him out of the last four games.

United head into the game on Monday off the back of a poor performance against Rochdale and a shocking defeat at West Ham so they’ll be desperate to get back to winning ways.

But that won’t be easy without Rashford and it leaves United without one of their main goal threats – which is not ideal considering they haven’t scored more than one goal in any of their last seven games in all competitions.