Michael Carrick shared the Man Utd team news ahead of this weekend's game against Chelsea in the Premier League.
Sesko after scoring against Everton in September. (Image: 2026 Getty Images)
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Michael Carrick has confirmed that Manchester United will be without Benjamin Sesko due to a shin injury for a "longer period of time."
It emerged on Wednesday night that Sesko was facing another two months on the sidelines following tests at Carrington on his shin.
Sesko last played for United against Brighton in the Carabao Cup on September 16. He felt pain in his shin after that game, which led United to assess the best options for his recovery at Carrington.
The Slovenia international missed the final three games of last season with a shin injury and missed all of pre-season to recover.
United are now facing the prospect of not having a recognised striker available until at least January, as Carrick explained at his press conference.
"Yeah, unfortunately Ben looks like he's going to be out for a period of time," Carrick said.
"We're still not clear of exactly how long, but it's going to be for a longer period of time. It was the process, as I said to you before, we had to go through the process, a bit of a healing process for the injury to see how it would react and what direction to go with that.
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"Even now we're still working through it. But it's unfortunately, obviously first and foremost, for Ben, for the kind of period that he's had, and tried to get through it and going through this again.
"And for us to not have him available is obviously a blow, but we'll try and get back, get him back as quick as we can."
When Sesko picked up a shin injury last season, United decided that rest was the best course of action, rather than surgery. The same discussion was had when he felt pain in the same area a month ago.
Carrick will at least be boosted by the return of Kobbie Mainoo to the squad to face Chelsea, and there is hope that Marcus Rashford could also be available again as he steps up in his recovery from a hip injury.
United's visit to Stamford Bridge will come too soon for Luke Shaw and Patrick Dorgu, though.
"Kobbie's done a little bit of training yesterday, so he's back in and around the group, so that's obviously a positive," Carrick said.