Bruno Fernandes injured in ‘massive’ blow to Manchester United with two English youngsters tipped to step up
Bruno Fernandes will be out for “a while” after picking up a soft tissue injury in Sunday’s defeat at Aston Villa, Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has revealed.
The 31-year-old Portuguese midfielder has started every Premier League game this season, but the Red Devils star now faces a spell on the sidelines after picking up an injury on Sunday.
Fernandes initially played on after pulling up with what appeared to be a hamstring issue just before the break, but the United skipper failed to return for the second half of the 2-1 defeat to in-form Villa.
Amorim told Sky Sports he thinks “it’s soft tissue so it’s going to be a while”, ruling the Portugal international out of the Boxing Day clash against Newcastle and beyond.
The United boss said in the press conference: “I don’t know (the severity). It’s a soft tissue. I think he’s going to lose some games. I don’t know for sure, so let’s see.
“You never control these things, so we’ll see. He is a guy who is always fit so he can recover quite well, but I don’t know.”
Fernandes’ injury compounded the absence of homegrown talent Kobbie Mainoo.
The 20-year-old dominated the build-up to Sunday’s trip to Villa Park after his half-brother wore a ‘Free Kobbie Mainoo’ t-shirt to Monday’s chaotic 4-4 draw with Bournemouth at Old Trafford.
Bruno Fernandes picking up a soft tissue injury
|
GETTY
Mainoo picked up a calf complaint in training on the eve of the game and will seemingly be unable to make his first Premier League start of the season against Newcastle.
Speaking on the absences of the key midfielders, Amorim said: “I will see what we are going to do. I think Kobbie Mainoo is out, Bruno is out, so we will see. We are going to find solutions. No excuses. We need to win the next game and we will try to win the next game.”
While Casemiro will return from suspension against Newcastle, Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui are at the Africa Cup of Nations and Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire have missed recent games.
Amorim said: “We need to deal with that. What we cannot do is to reach January and try to do everything in urgency and make mistakes and then ‘here we go again’ with a lot of mistakes.”
Bruno Fernandes has started every Premier League game this season
|
GETTY
He added: “I’m not going to get with Jason (Wilcox, director of football) and Omar (Berrada, chief executive) and going to say ‘we need a lot of players’ because we have a plan.
“If we have to suffer, the club comes first. Of course, we are in a moment where we need points, but we need to find solutions and we are going to continue with our plan.”
Teammate Diogo Dalot called Fernandes’ injury a “massive” blow as Manchester United wait to find out the severity of the skipper’s setback.
Dalot told Sky Sports: “It’s massive. We don’t know how bad it is but for him to come off (in) the game, we know how tough he is.
Jack Fletcher and Shea Lacey came on for their senior debuts at the weekend
|
GETTY
The Portuguese defender, who hopes to play alongside Fernandes and Cristono Ronaldo next summer at the 2026 World Cup, said: “I think we still created enough to score more goals and let’s hope that it’s not too bad, and then we have Bruno for the next games.”
He suggested Jack Fletcher, son of United favourite Darren, and Shea Lacey, who came on for their senior debuts at the weekend, will be given a chance to play for the historic English club.
Dalot said: “This is the moment. I mean, we have so many players missing that this is the opportunity for those who didn’t have so many chances to step up now and show that they deserve more minutes.
“I’m very happy that they could make their debuts and hopefully in the next games they are available and they can help us as well.”
