Manchester United midfielder Carlos Baleba will be sidelined for a number of weeks, Michael Carrick has confirmed.
Baleba was forced off early in the second half of Man United’s comeback win over Roma in the Champions League on Tuesday night with a suspected hamstring injury. Carrick, at the time, was unable to confirm the severity of the issue or provide a definitive timeline for when the Cameroon international would be available for selection again.
Carrick provides timeline
Speaking in the press conference on Friday, the United head coach said: “Yeah, Carlos, we don't know exactly, but it'll be a number of weeks. It's definitely not this week, and it won't be anytime over the international break. It'll be a little bit longer than that.”
Man Utd are next in action on Sunday afternoon as they welcome Aston Villa to Old Trafford, seeking to record just a second Premier League win of the season. However, Carrick will be forced into making at least one change to his starting line up as Baleba will not feature.
Multiple absentees for Villa game
Luke Shaw, Benjamin Sesko, Manuel Ugarte and Marcus Rashford are shorter to medium-term injury casualties, while Lisandro Martinez is suspended for the Villa game and Harry Maguire is a doubt after limping off in midweek.
Patrick Dorgu, though, is nearing a return to action having been sidelined since the autumn international break and faces a late fitness test to determine whether he can return to the matchday squad at the weekend.
“Patrick has done a little bit of training this week. You've seen him train with us at the start of the week, very, very small. So we've got to be patient with Pátrick,” Carrick added. “He's had a good period of time now with a couple of hamstrings that we need to manage that and be patient with that over the next few weeks as well. But he's slowly getting back with us, so we'll have to see whether he can be involved at the weekend or not.”
