Manchester United's £74million summer signing Benjamin Sesko will be absent from the squad for their Premier League clash against Everton on Monday night. The Slovenian striker was forced to withdraw from United's thrilling draw with Tottenham before the international break and has been ruled out of action by manager Ruben Amorim. Sesko, who joined from RB Leipzig in the summer, missed his international duties with Slovenia, much to the annoyance of his national team manager.
He was also noticeably absent from United's training session on Friday morning. Amorim confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Sesko would not be available for the Everton match and could potentially miss further games in the coming weeks. "He is going to be a few weeks out," the United boss revealed. "Not that serious, we have to be careful. He is feeling better."
When questioned about whether Sesko would be unavailable during AFCON - when fellow forward Bryan Mbeumo will also be absent - Amorim responded: "It's going to be more or less the same time – I don't want to say for sure but when they are going to the camp I expect to have Ben back."
Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo were also missing from Friday's training at Carrington. Amorim stated that Maguire is "not ready" to play on Monday, however, Mainoo is expected to train on Saturday and could potentially feature against Everton.
"Maguire is not ready," Amorim reiterated. "Kobbie didn't train today but I think we could see Kobbie tomorrow so we'll see." He added: "There is an opportunity for other players like the under-21s. We will see it is not ideal. They are so important in our team."
Sesko has netted twice and provided one assist across 12 appearances for United thus far. His unavailability means Amorim will need to adjust his tactical approach, potentially deploying Matheus Cunha in a false nine role, flanked by Amad Diallo and Mbeumo.
United currently sit seventh in the Premier League standings, sharing 18 points with four other clubs following an impressive five-match unbeaten streak.
Amorim has previously suggested United might be compelled to enter the January transfer market, particularly with Mbeumo departing to represent Cameroon at AFCON. "Of course, we are going to have a problem there (AFCON), but we already knew that," he said.
"We knew that we would have a lot of players who are not going to play because it's one game a week, so we knew that trying to manage that situation was going to be hard. Let's see when the window is open, if we can improve the team, and try to repair something that happened. Until then we have to take the chance. We'll see."