UNITED ARE LEFT HAMSTRUNG
Long list of injuries for Ole but distressed Rashford soldiers on
ONE by one, they limped off the pitch past Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard nursing hamstring injuries. We hadn’t reached half-time at Old Trafford and Manchester United had used all three substitutes.
One of them was Lingard but he only lasted another 18 minutes after replacing Mata. Alexis Sanchez took his place. Andreas Pereira was on for Herrera.
All the while, the man Solskjaer really wanted to take off was still out there.
Each time play came to a halt, Marcus Rashford sat on his haunches or bent over, hands on knees, clearly in some distress.
It had been that way from the moment Jordan Henderson clattered into Rashford’s right ankle with the game little more than a quarter of an hour old.
That wasn’t the only time Liverpool paid very close attention to the young England striker whose two goals inside 24 minutes settled this fixture last season.
The memory of that defeat might well have influenced Jurgen Klopp’s decision to leave out Trent Alexander-Arnold here and play the more experienced James Milner at right back. Either way, Liverpool seemed determined not to let lightning strike twice.
Solskjaer chose his words carefully afterwards but he didn’t have to look far for a reason why Rashford has joined a worryingly long list of injury doubts for Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace despite soldiering on to the end of this game.
‘I think you can’t say “targeted” but you can say there were quite a few fouls on him, definitely,’ said United’s caretaker boss, who began the day without two other regular starters in Anthony Martial and Nemanja Matic.
‘Normally I would take him off after five minutes, because whoever it was went straight through him. His ankle blew up straight away, but he wanted to run it off. Then I couldn’t take him off with Juan and Jesse going off, so we’re hoping he’s not done too much damage. If he plays (at Palace) I’ll be surprised.’
On the other occasion Solskjaer dropped points in the Premier League, there was credit to be had in a 2-2 draw with Burnley as United staged a late fightback.
Here, too, the Norwegian could be happy with his players for overcoming adversity to earn a draw.
‘I’ve never seen the like of this before,’ he added. ‘Three hamstrings in the first half, and Rashy was kicked and did his ankle. We played with 10-and-ahalf players but the fans and Rashy’s attitude made up for it.
‘I was very impressed by my team today — the attitude and character we showed in adversity. Everything that could have gone wrong in the first half went wrong. We had four injuries and it seemed like it was going to be a tough afternoon.
‘I learned a lot about my players. Scott McTominay was excellent. Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling were fantastic. Luke Shaw gave his best performance under me. When they need a goal and they take off Mohamed Salah, you know Shaw has had a good game.
‘I can’t remember Liverpool having a chance. They dominated the possession, but we had the biggest chances.’
Solskjaer admitted that he might have to investigate the cause of so many hamstring injuries after suffering four in the last three games. Lingard was risked just 11 days after going off in the Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain, although Solskjaer believes the England international may have suffered a fresh injury when Fabinho pulled him back.
‘We might have to look at that, but it’s different players,’ he said. ‘I never thought Juan Mata would get a hamstring injury!’