Manchester United caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken to the media ahead of this evening’s Premier League clash at Newcastle United.
We head to St James’ Park having won all three games under the Norwegian but remain eight points outside of the Champions League places.
As well as Eric Bailly being unavailable, Solskjaer was able to confirm that three other first team places will miss the match against the Magpies.
Bailly misses our first game of 2019 through suspension following a straight red card for his reckless foul on Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser during our 4-1 win on Sunday.
Phil Jones is likely to replace the Ivorian to partner Victor Lindelof in the middle of our back four, as Chris Smalling AND Marcos Rojo both remain sidelined.
The caretaker boss also confirmed that Bailly, Smalling and Rojo’s absences means that Matteo Darmian will play the backup role should either Jones or Lindelof pick up an injury during the game. Solksjaer told MUTV:
“That’s enough isn’t it? It should be enough with two! We’ll have to look at it, of course, but we’ve got Darmian, who can definitely play centre-back. I don’t think Rojo will make it so it will probably be Darmian as back-up centre-back.”
Central midfielder Scott McTominay also continues to recover from injury.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was able to leave us with some positive news from his pre-match press conference as he confirmed that Alexis Sanchez is available for the first time during his reign at Old Trafford.
The Chilean has not featured since our 0-0 draw at home to Crystal Palace on 24 November where he picked up a hamstring injury. Sanchez had lost his way under Jose Mourinho but must be excited to play under Solskjaer having seen the team score 12 goals in his three games in charge. Solskjaer confirmed Sanchez’s availability:
“Alexis has had some great training sessions over the last few days and wanted to be here [against Bournemouth] as well but we’ve had to manage him.
“He’s been out for a month. He will be involved [at Newcastle], yes.
”He wants to play all the time, he’s one of those characters. He made himself available but I think it was a few days too early for him. He’s not had enough fitness work but he is champing at the bit.
“I think Alexis is a player that would benefit from the interchanging, rotation and movements and, of course, more chances. If we create more chances and get the ball in the final third, he will be an asset for us. On the floor, in between or in behind, I think he’s looking forward to it. Certainly, it’s looked like it in the session the other day when he scored quite a few nice goals and that was encouraging.”
Newcastle United have benefited from a day’s additional rest after they drew 1-1 at Watford on Saturday.
Rafa Benitez’s side head into this evening’s fixtures in 15th place, three points above the relegation zone.
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