Manchester United had just started picking up their good form in the Premier League until Arsenal ruined their run.
As though that is not enough, a good number of United’s reliable players have been ruled out of play in their international duties out of injuries, a thing that is likely to be a bump in the fight for the top four.
Gareth Southgate confirmed on Thursday afternoon that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s injury problems had got worse.
“It’s clear to us he’s not ready for our two matches so we have sent him back to his club,” the England manager said about Marcus Rashford.
Rashford’s return to Manchester on Thursday meant he became the fifth United player to withdraw from international duty through injury, following Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw and Nemanja Matic.
Before the international break United’s injury list had started to improve.
Nine players had missed the victory against Paris Saint-Germain but as the days went on the recovery room at United’s Carrington training ground emptied with Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Jesse Lingard all making their returns before Solskjaer’s squad dispersed for the international break.
But, with just over a week until United’s next game, at home to Watford in the Premier League, and Solskjaer finds himself in a quandary with the possibility he will be going in to that game with no first team forwards fit.
Alexis Sanchez was ruled out for up to eight weeks with ligament damage he sustained in United’s win over Southampton at the start of the month so a return for the Chilean seems very unlikely while Romelu Lukaku was sent home from Belgium duty having had a scan on his foot.
Lukaku sustained the injury during United’s win in Paris and aggravated it in the league defeat to Arsenal four days later which then meant the 25-year-old sat out the FA Cup defeat to Wolves.
The full extent of his injury is not known but he was not deemed fit enough to train with Roberto Martinez’s side this week so will face a race to be fit for the visit of Javi Garcia’s side a week on Saturday.
While Anthony Martial, was sent home from the France duty with ‘recurring problems in right knee’ another headache for Solskjaer.
With that in mind there’s the potential United Jesse Lingard will be the only attacker fit for their next Premier League game. Lingard is in Dubai working on his fitness as he fights to get back to 100 per cent following his own spell on the sidelines.
Solskjaer’s already shown he’s not afraid to promote youth team players when his squad is in need of a boost and he could have to take another gamble on them next weekend.
With Mason Greenwood already getting his promotion to the first team the likes of Largie Ramazani and D’Mani Mellor in the U18s team training will be hoping to catch the eye of Solskjaer when the first team return to training next week and with the way things are going for the Norwegian with his luck of injuries there could be another surprise name on the team sheet next weekend.