Manchester United team news vs Real Sociedad – Martial still out

Thursday night’s Europa League opener against Real Sociedad comes too early for Anthony Martial.

The France international has been ruled out with injury for the last two weeks and, to make matters worse, he has only been able to play 45 minutes this season because of a hamstring problem in August.

“Yes he’s [Martial] still out, he’s progressing but he’s not ready to get back onto team training,” Ten Hag told reporters, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.

Marcus Rashford has been leading the line in Martial’s absence, but we’ve gone with Cristiano Ronaldo in our predicted XI to face Real Sociedad.

There is plenty of reason to be excited about Martial’s return — for however long it lasts — because Ten Hag will have several options to select from in attack, especially from the bench when United are chasing games in the second half.

Moreover, there are serval players looking for a recall into the line-up, with Ten Hag set to use the Europa League group stages to rotate players. He will need to switch things up in the cup competitions because of the fixture congestion in the Premier League this season.

Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Casemiro, Fred and Cristiano Ronaldo will all be hoping to start against Real Sociedad.

New signing Casemiro has come on as a substitute in the last three games, but he is yet to make his first start as a United player.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see Victor Lindelof in the line-up after the Swede recently returned from injury.

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