Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has confirmed that he will be without five first-team stars for Saturday’s Premier League clash against Norwich City.
The Red Devils have lost ground in the Champions League race recently with a draw and defeat against Leicester City and Everton respectively.
They are now six points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, and need a huge turnaround to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
The club must first to return to winning ways on Saturday. Ahead of the game, Rangnick has confirmed the absence of five players due to injuries.
Edinson Cavani has been nursing a calf injury since his return from international duty, and won’t feature against the Canaries tomorrow.
Aside from the Uruguayan, Raphael Varane, Fred, Scott McTominay and Luke Shaw are out of action, Rangnick told Manutd.com:
“Five players will still be missing for tomorrow, and probably some of them also for the upcoming games. You already mentioned Fred and Scott.”
“Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw had his bolts and metal stuff removed from his leg and Edinson Cavani, those are the five that will be missing.”
Shaw recently had a couple of metal bolts removed from his leg operation seven years ago. Rangnick has now accepted that he won’t play any part for the remainder of the campaign.
He added: “Yeah, as it seems, he will be out for at least another four weeks, if not five weeks. So I think for him it will be difficult to be available for one of the outstanding remaining seven games.”
Meanwhile, when asked about Varane’s injury concern, Rangnick said that the Frenchman is the closest to making a comeback among those injured.
The German tactician believes the World Cup winner could be fit to face either Liverpool or Arsenal next week, he further explained:
“I think probably with Raphael Varane he’s the one who can hopefully can back for at least one of the next two games against Liverpool or Arsenal.
“With the others, I don’t see them coming back within the next couple of days.”
Stats from Transfermarkt.com
