Man United have a number of injury issues ahead of Sunday's huge game against Aston Villa in the Premier League
Patrick Dorgu, Carlos Baleba and Marcus Rashford
Patrick Dorgu, Carlos Baleba and Marcus Rashford are among Manchester United's injury worries(Image: Getty Images)
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Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick knows a win over Aston Villa would be huge in his bid to keep his job at Old Trafford. The Reds sit 17th in the Premier League, having only won one game in the division this campaign.
However, their confidence will have been handed a boost this week after a stunning 3-2 comeback victory over Roma in the Champions League. That result was a shock but is something to build on for Carrick. If he can follow that win with another his job should be safe during the international break.
Carrick's task has been made harder by a number of injury issues. Lisandro Martinez is unavailable due to suspension but MEN Sport has rounded up the injury concerns and absentees heading into the weekend.
Carlos Baleba
Injury: Hamstring
After the win on Tuesday, Carrick confirmed it was too early to say how bad Baleba's injury is. Now, following Friday's press conference, the boss added: "Carlos, we don't know [when he will be back], but it will be a number of weeks. It's definitely not this week, and it won't be any time over the international break. It'll be a little bit longer than that."
Potential return date: Unknown
Patrick Dorgu
Injury: Thigh
Dorgu returned to training in midweek ahead of schedule. He was ruled out of the game against Roma and Carrick said on Friday afternoon: "Patrick's done a little bit of training this week. As you've seen, he trained with us at the start of the week, very, very small. So we've got to be patient with Pat.
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"He's had a good period of time now with a couple of hamstrings that we need to manage that and be patient with that over the next few weeks as well. But he's slowly getting back with us, so we'll have to see whether he can be involved at the weekend or not."
Potential return date: November 8 vs Aston Villa
Marcus Rashford
Injury: Hip
Carrick confirmed in midweek that United were taking it 'day-by-day' with Rashford ahead of his return. There was no further update on Friday.
Potential return date: November 22 vs Liverpool
Luke Shaw
Injury: Unknown
The Reds' boss confirmed on Monday that Shaw would not be around this week, meaning his earliest return date will be after the international break.
Potential return date: November 22 vs Liverpool
Benjamin Sesko
Injury: Shin
Last week, Carrick said: "Yeah, unfortunately Ben looks like he's going to be out for a period of time. 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. Even now we're still working through it.
"But it's unfortunate, 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."
Potential return date: January
Manuel Ugarte
Injury: Knee
Ugarte is out for the foreseeable future and is in a race to be fit again before the end of the season. The midfielder continues to recover at Carrington from a serious knee injury he picked up at the World Cup.
Potential return date: 2027