Solskjaer ‘positive’ about Maguire being fit for Europa League final

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists both he and Harry Maguire are “positive” that the Manchester United captain will be fit to lead his side out for the Europa League final.

United face Villarreal in Gdansk next week looking to win the competition for the second time in four years.

Maguire has been a mainstay of the United side since moving from Leicester but suffered an ankle injury in last week’s win at Aston Villa and faces a race against time to be fit for the final – but Solskjaer planstogivehisskipperaslong as possible.

“He’s making progress, but we’ve consciously taken the routeofnottestinghimouttoo early, too quickly, because we don’t want to aggravate something,” Solskjaer said.

“Harry wants this so much, so he doesn’t want to take any risks either.

“When I spoke to him this morning,hewasquitepositive. But, naturally, the day after it happened we were all down.

“But we saw early on or decided we have to focus, have to be positive and think that you’regoingtomakeituntilyou havetosay‘no’.I’vealwaysbeen an optimist, so we’re positive.”

With Champions League football already assured for next season through the Premier League, the Red Devils can play without the burden of needing to beat their LaLiga rivals to return to Europe’s top table.ButSolskjaerwillbeaiming to mastermind a victory in Poland and land his first piece of silverware as United boss.

To do that he will strive to pick his strongest side admitting he will take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s book and have individual conversations with thoseplayerswhodonotmake the cut.

Solskjaer famously came off the bench and scored the last-gasp winner in the Champions League final win over BayernMunichin1999tocomplete the Treble for United and pinpointed another moment when Ferguson made special dispensationtotalktohisplayers.

“It’salwaysdifficultandthe human side is you want everyone to get this experience,” he said, when asked if he faced some difficult conversations with his squad.

“Then you have to pick XI. That’s just the nature of the job that you have to make some tough decisions and stand by them. You’ll have to sit down, individually, and I remember Sir Alex sat me down and explained why I didn’t play the semi-final. We had a good conversation and I still felt I had a contribution to make and that I was important in his team.”