James, Pogba, Shaw and Martial all out of Man Utd’s Europa League clash with Astana
MANCHESTER UNITED have been hit with an injury crisis as Daniel James, Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial are all ruled out of their clash with Astana.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men host the Kazakh minnows in their opening Europa League game tomorrow night.
But the United boss confirmed French duo Pogba and Martial are ruled out of the game, with both missing Saturday’s 1-0 win against Leicester.
Left-back Shaw, who has been out since coming off injured against Crystal Palace last month, is still sidelined with a hamstring problem.
And in form winger James is now out of the European clash after a training injury.
Boss Solskjaer hopes the injured Welshman will return for their league clash at West Ham on Sunday.
He said: “I don’t think we’ll see Paul or Anthony, I’m sure we won’t see them.
“Luke is not ready yet. Dan is touch and go. He missed training today and [his recovery] might be longer than expected but hopefully [he’ll be back for] the weekend.”
United do welcome back Jesse Lingard, after the playmaker was absent for the Leicester win, as well as defender Diogo Dalot.
Solskjaer added: “We still have a few players out Jesse is back, which is great.
“He had a bad time when he was with England but, hopefully, we’ll get him on the pitch to try to kickstart his season again.
“The youngsters are raring to go. They all want to play.
“Diogo is back. He’s been training for a little while now but we needed assurances before we threw him in.
“We probably could have had him on the bench against Leicester last time, but now he’s ready.
“I think it’s a chance for me to use the squad and give some minutes, of course, to some of the young players.
“We all know, if they take a chance, it might be the start of something big. Hopefully, we can see the young kids go out and enjoy themselves.
“We don’t know too much about Astana but they’re the second seeds in the group.
“They’ve always been really good at home, but struggled a bit away from home, so hopefully we’ll make their start to these group stages difficult.”