Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has ruled a string of players out of Monday’s Premier League clash against Chelsea. Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Scott McTominay and Axel Tuanzebe are all unavailable for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
Rashford is sidelined by a back injury while Pogba (ankle) is still trying to work his way back to full fitness. McTominay (knee) and Tuanzebe (muscle problems) trained with the first-team group at their warm-weather training camp in Marbella but are not ready to return to action. Timothy Fosu-Mensah (knee) is also unavailable despite stepping up his training programme.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Solskjaer said: “I don’t think we’ll get anyone back for the Chelsea game
“Scotty, Axel and Tim didn’t join in too much, so they’re not ready to play that game. Paul is not ready, of course.
“How do we go about playing without Marcus, Paul, Scott? You deal with it.
“We’ve got players who are going to get a chance. They’ve now had a rest, a great rest.”
The absence of Rashford prompted United to swoop for Odion Ighalo on the final day of the January transfer window.
The former Watford striker, who will spend the rest of the season at Old Trafford, appears set for a place on the bench against Chelsea, despite spending the last two weeks away from Carrington after arriving in the country from coronavirus-affected China.
Solskjaer said: “I never said he was going to be ready to play on Monday.
“He’ll be involved with us and he’ll travel down with us and, obviously, now he’s out of that two-week period of precaution and it’s a precaution we’ve made.
“He’ll travel with us and let’s see if he’s involved or not.
“He’s done his [training programme] and it was always going to be a case of him having to integrate into the group anyway after having been out in China. He needs to get used to the players and the team and up to speed as quick as he can.”
United head into the clash sitting eighth in the Premier League table, six points behind Chelsea.