Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a real headache on his hands ahead of his side’s clash with Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.
Not only did the Norwegian tactician lose Ander Herrera, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata in the first half at Old Trafford during the goalless draw with Liverpool on Sunday, but he revealed that Marcus Rashford should have come off too.
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The 21-year-old picked up an ankle knock during the encounter, but bravely continued to avoid leaving his side at a numerical disadvantage for a large portion of the game.
However, he may well have now aggravated the problem to rule himself out of Wednesday’s meeting with Palace, with Solskjaer conceding that he doesn’t expect his striker to be involved.
“I haven’t seen him after the game or after he had treatment. If he plays, I’ll be surprised,” he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
“He did his ankle straight away. We should have taken him off straight away, but we couldn’t. We played with 10-and-a-half men, but Rashford’s attitude made up for it as well.”
Time will tell if he can recover over the coming days, but it doesn’t sound particularly promising for Rashford who has been in fine form under Solskjaer since he was appointed as interim boss in December.
The England international has scored six goals in nine Premier League games under his current boss, but along with the likes of Mata, Lingard and Herrera, as well as Nemanja Matic and Anthony Martial who both missed the game entirely on Sunday, the injury problems are mounting at a crucial time for the Red Devils.
Solskjaer will hope that if Wednesday comes too soon for the names above, that they could be in contention to return before their meeting with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on March 6, before key games against Arsenal and Wolves in the league and FA Cup respectively.
