Marcel Sabitzer has come the latest player to be added to Manchester United’s growing list of injured stars, with the Austrian international withdrawn from today’s game against Nottingham Forest after initially being named in the starting lineup.
Sabitzer was pulled out of the side roughly 15 minutes prior to kick-off, with Christian Eriksen replacing him to make his first start since January.
The heavy blow comes just days after Ten Hag was delivered the news that Lisandro Martinez would miss the remainder of the campaign and Raphael Varane will miss a couple of weeks.
There is little clarity on when top goalscorer Marcus Rashford will return and Luke Shaw, Alejandro Garnacho, Scott McTominay and Donny van de Beek are all unavailable as well. To add to Ten Hag’s misery, Tyrell Malacia was also ruled out of the trip to Forest with a sore knee.
Losing Sabitzer would undeniably be a massive blow to Ten Hag and United – especially considering the stunning form he is in right now.
Speaking after his side secured a comfortable 2-0 win over Forest, Ten Hag provided an update on Sabitzer’s injury, admitting he will not be able to say whether he will miss out on any games until further tests have been conducted.
“Sabitzer came off in the warm up, he felt something,” Ten Hag is quoted as saying by the BBC.
“We decided not to take the risk, we will find out tomorrow what it is. But when you have Eriksen on the bench, it is definitely not a disadvantage.
“Last week I had nine fit top defenders, now I have four. We need all our players, we are still in three competitions, we need all the players to form a top team.”
Thankfully, the returns of Casemiro and Eriksen have helped United with their midfield woes. Ten Hag will be hoping that Sabitzer is fine to feature on Thursday as the Reds battle to make it to the final four of the Europa League.
