Manchester United will be without half a dozen players for their Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid. While their opponents boast a fully fit squad, Michael Carrick continues to grapple with multiple absentees.
Amad made his comeback against Tottenham, Matthijs de Ligt has made the journey to the Spanish capital, and Tom Heaton is back in training. However, their availability has been offset by fresh fitness concerns.
Fresh injury concerns
Luke Shaw was withdrawn in the sixth minute of second half stoppage time during the Spurs encounter. Kobbie Mainoo saw out the full match but has since joined his England colleague on the treatment table after missing Monday morning's training session.
Carrick revealed during his press conference in Madrid hours afterwards: "They've not travelled, they both picked up issues in the game on Saturday, and we were working through that, to see what that looks like. At the moment, they are not ready for the game tomorrow."
More absentees
Benjamin Sesko, Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu were also absent from the session. Manuel Ugarte remained sidelined too, continuing his recovery from knee surgery at Carrington.
Dorgu and Mazraoui picked up knocks while representing Denmark and Morocco respectively during the international break. Carrick confirmed ahead of the Spurs fixture that both would be unavailable.
"Patrick came off, and it looks like he will be out for a number of weeks," United's head coach said. He added on Mazraoui: "Nous came off and took a knock, he's not quite right, so we'll see how he is."
Carrick's assessment
The following day, Carrick commented on Sesko's shin injury: "It's a similar area, but it's not the exact same thing again. And we're still working through it a little bit to see how long the issue will be."
He went on to say: "[Sesko] recovered really well from the initial one, but sometimes things get thrown up and the body does certain things. We've got to react to that and try to get him back as quickly as we can."
Despite this, the head coach rejected suggestions that United are short of options, stating: "We're not light on numbers, no. Of course, we've got a couple of issues with some players missing out, but we're definitely not light on numbers."
Youngsters involved
Turning his attention to De Ligt and academy defender Dan Armer's involvement, Carrick remarked: "It's good for Dan to be part of it and for younger players to sample it, the build-up to the game, and get a sense of it. It's good to have Matta in and around it.
"We've had a little bit of patience with him, working through that and working hard to get to this stage. He's had a long journey, so we're delighted to have him back."
