Manchester United begin their Champions League campaign when they take on Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Prince on Tuesday night.
Ahead of the game, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and the United boss provided the latest injury news on a number of his first team squad.
Unfortunately, Solskjaer confirmed that Harry Maguire has missed the trip to France after picking up a knock during the 4-1 victory over Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Saturday night. However, the Norwegian coach suggested the injury isn’t serious as Man Utd hope to have Maguire available for Saturday’s visit of Chelsea to Old Trafford.
There was more bad news for United as Mason Greenwood has also been ruled out of the PSG game tomorrow after failing to recover from the injury that kept him out of the Newcastle trip at the weekend. Luckily, Solskjaer says it’s ‘just a niggle’ and Greenwood could be back in contention to face Chelsea.
Summer signing Edinson Cavani also won’t be available for tomorrow’s clash with former club PSG as Solskjaer says the striker still isn’t fit enough to be in contention having only recently been able to take part in full training.
Manchester United will be short on options in defence as Eric Bailly hasn’t made the trip to Paris while Phil Jones is also missing with an ongoing issue so Solskjaer will have to put-out a make-shift back-line.
Jesse Lingard is the final player ruled out of the Champions League group stage opener tomorrow night as the midfielder has been left back in Manchester nursing an unspecified issue.
Solskjaer told ManUtd.com:
“Yeah we’ve lost a couple. Bailly didn’t travel and Lingard didn’t travel. So we’re a little bit deflated but we have more than enough players. We hope the players won’t be away too long,”
“Edinson needs a few more days before he’s ready. Hopefully Harry, Eric and Mason [will be ready for the weekend], but we’re not too sure on that.”
“[on Greenwood] It’s just a niggle and even though he’s young we can’t take a chance with him. Hopefully he’ll be okay for the weekend.
“We hope Harry will be fit for the weekend, but we’re not sure.”
With Maguire, Bailly and Jones all missing it will be interesting to see how Man Utd line-up in the middle of defence tomorrow night as they prepare to face-off against the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
