Man Utd Team News: van Gaal Confirms Fresh Injury Blow But Van Persie Returns

Manchester United will look to kick start their season when they take on Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, boss Louis van Gaal has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference and gave ManUtd.com a team news update including the latest on Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera, Robin van Persie, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Jesse Lingard.

Let’s start with the good news and van Gaal confirmed that influential striker Robin van Persie is available again having missed the season opening defeat to Swansea City. The Dutchman wasn’t considered fit enough for that game last week but van Gaal is now happy he’s back up to match speed so could come straight in to face Sunderland this weekend.

However, that’s about as good as it gets for United as the Dutch coach revealed that new signing Marcos Rojo won’t be eligible for the trip to the Stadium of Light as he hasn’t received his work permit in time.

van Gaal also confirmed a fresh injury blow as Ander Herrera has been ruled out after picking up an ankle injury in training on Thursday, and the Spaniard joins fellow midfielders Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini and Jesse Lingard on the sidelines, so United are going to be extremely short of options in the middle of the park.

Defenders Jonny Evans and Luke Shaw make up the list of seven absentees, and van Gaal has confessed he’s never had to deal with such a lengthy injury list in all his years of management. He told the clubs official website:

“Robin is ready to play, so that is a big benefit for our team. I’m very happy that he is now able to play.”

“Rojo is fit and ready to play but he doesn’t have a work permit so we have to wait,”

 “Last week, we had nine injuries and now we have seven. It’s much too much. I have had this as a manager for the first time. We have to live with this. We have four injured midfielders – Carrick, from the beginning, but now also Herrera, Fellaini and Lingard. So these four are injured and we are thin on midfielders now.”

United will be desperate to pick up their first points of the new season after suffering a shock loss to Swansea at Old Trafford on the opening weekend, but their worrying injury list isn’t going to help matters.

We’ll have our match preview up later this evening but for now, let us know what your team would be for the game….