Saturday 14th August 12:30pm | Old Trafford
Junior Firpo will miss Saturday lunchtime's War of the Roses clash at Old Trafford. The £13m signing from Barcelona missed the games against Ajax and Villarreal with a slight knock. Stuart Dallas will deputise. Club Captain Liam Cooper will start at centre back alongside either Struijk. Llorente picked up an injury last month against Real Bettis. It is likely to keep the Spanish International sidelined for a few weeks.
According to @LUFCfanzone…
Diego has a leg muscle injury which will take 2-3 weeks to heal. It’s not major but he probably won’t be ready for the start of the PL season.
Jamie Shackleton too, is on the treatment table. A nasty clash of heads during the 4-0 Ajax defeat saw the 22 year old substituted. Inspirational midfielder Kalvin Phillips will also miss out following his England heroics earlier in the Summer, Robin Koch will slot into the holding midfield role. It will be interesting to see which youngsters make the bench this season! Cresswell, Dramah, Summerville, Greenwood and of course Joe Gelhardt have all impressed lately but will it be enough? Exciting new signing Lewis Bate will also be looking for game time following his £1.2m transfer from Stamford Bridge.
Fernandes, Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, and Victor Lindelof all returned to action against Everton last weekend and should start against Bielsa's side! New signing Raphael Varane will miss out, his registration delayed after having to isolate following his move from Real Madrid. Jadon Sancho too is unlikely to start for the Reds. He only joined up with his team mates for the first time on Monday.
Dean Henderson and Jesse Lingard have both been ruled out with Covid related illnesses whilst Rashford and Telles are long term absentees. Cavani, Bailly and Diallo are all resting having taken part in the Olympics for their respective Countries!
