UNITED SPECIAL Reds hit with injury crisis for Paris trip
UNITED are set to be without 10 players for their Champions League round-of-16 second leg with Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
United beat Southampton without Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard to return to fourth in the Premier League on Saturday, but caretaker coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has indicated none of the quintet will travel to Paris.
Solskjaer suggested Martial (groin) would not figure against Southampton to save him for PSG but the 23-year-old is expected to remain sidelined. Lingard, Mata and Herrera are all out with hamstring strains and Matic is also unavailable due to an unspecified muscle injury, while Paul Pogba is suspended following his red card in the first leg at Old Trafford.
Alexis Sanchez was forced off in the second-half against Southampton and Solskjaer said the Chilean could have suffered knee ligament damage.
Matteo Darmian has missed the last nine games, illness has prevented Phil Jones from figuring in the last four and Antonio Valencia is rehabilitating from a calf injury in his native Ecuador.
“Not really, no,” Solskjaer replied when asked if any of the players may recover. “It doesn’t look like it.”
On Martial, specifically, Solskjaer added: “No, I don’t think we can risk it. He has not been training yet, so I don’t think so.”
Diogo Dalot replaced Sanchez against Southampton and could play in the front three again, having started on the right flank at Crystal Palace. United only have three first-team central midfielders to select from in Scott McTominay, Fred and Andreas Pereira, so the 17-year-old James Garner is destined to make the squad against PSG. Fellow teenagers Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong and Mason Greenwood are also poised to travel.
Chong, 19, emerged in added time to make his league debut against Southampton and the 18-year-old Gomes, who has appeared three times off the bench, was an unused substitute. Greenwood was listed as a substitute in the Champions League group stage defeat at Valencia in December.
United trail PSG 2-0 on aggregate and overturned a 2-0 first leg deficit against Olympiakos in 2014, but the return leg was at Old Trafford. Since United reached the Champions League final at Wembley in 2011, the Olympiakos comeback is the only knockout tie they have won in the competition. Solskjaer was not in the United squad for either leg of their semifinal revival against Juventus in 1999 but played in the three games sandwiched between the European ties. Despite playing no part in Manchester or Turin, the memory of United winning their first game on Italian soil from 2-0 down is still vivid for the Norwegian. “Yeah, I have to say that we felt invincible,” Solskjaer said of United’s Treble run-in. “We felt that every game we were in with a chance to win and the way we won it against Arsenal in that FA Cup semi-final, they missed a penalty and we scored the winner. “And the belief is here now, I have to say. They (PSG) are confident going into the game knowing that we are 2-0 down. We know it is going to be difficult, we played them here and they are a good team, and we have got loads of injuries, there are a few boys here that will want to be part of it. “It was 1-1 at home (against Juve