Man Utd face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday and Michael Carrick has been boosted by the return of one player from injury this week.
Mason Mount of Manchester United in action during a first team training session at Carrington Training Ground
Mason Mount has returned to training at Manchester United(Image: (Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images))
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Mason Mount is set to return to the Manchester United squad for the Premier League clash with Aston Villa on Sunday after he returned to training at Carrington this week.
The 27-year-old has missed the last six games after picking up an injury in the early weeks of Michael Carrick's reign, but he is now back in training and could be part of the matchday squad against Villa.
But Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez and Patrick Dorgu are all still on the sidelines and will be missing this weekend. De Ligt has been absent for three-and-a-half months with a back injury, Martinez is out with a calf injury and Dorgu remains out with a hamstring problem.
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"Mason is back with the group, which is fantastic," said Carrick. "He's an important player for us, Mason, and to have him back and involved is a good step for us.
"He is not 100% in terms of back, because he's only trained a very small amount of time, but he's back and that's good for us so we'll see whether he's involved or not on Sunday, but it's a big step for him, so we're happy with that. That's it in terms of players coming back for now."
Carrick suffered his first defeat as United head coach at Newcastle last week and has had the job of picking his squad up ahead of a vital clash with Villa that could be decisive in the battle for Champions League football.
The 44-year-old said they had now got over the setback at St James' Park and were desperate to get going again and try and put that right against Unai Emery's side.
"It's been a good week," said Carrick. "The result was disappointing, the way the game ended it was obviously disappointing. I think we've kind of digested that and looked at it and learned from it and trained well.
"We've trained really well this week and itching to get going on Sunday now."
Carrick will come up against a familiar face this weekend. He coached Morgan Rogers when he was in charge at Middlesbrough, with Rogers' career going from strength to strength since he joined Aston Villa.
"First of all, it is fantastic for him to see Morgan going on to do so well and for a good period of time," he said. "He had the initial signing in the January, and I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go, it was a big step for him, he hadn’t played for an awful long time at Middlesbrough so I felt he could have done with a little bit more.
"But as soon as he has gone to Aston Villa, he took huge steps and became a major, major part of their team and part of the England team so that is how well he has done.
"You could always see what he was possibly going to be capable of and the potential in terms of his attributes, the way he carries the ball, he can play off his left foot, play off his right foot, create and score goals and really good athletically, so there were a lot of things there when we took him to start with but to see him go on and have such an impact would be probably more than I would have expected or probably more than Morgan himself would have expected.
"It is great to see though. I enjoy seeing him do so well. To come up against him is a different story. Nevertheless, he is a good person, great to work with so I am delighted he has done so well."