The Premier League fixtures are in the background and Manchester United’s biggest game of the season against Athletic Club is next up, with the club receiving an all-important injury update.
Both teams come into this with everything to play for, reflected in their team selection for games leading up to it as coaches were eager to keep their players fit.
Still, it had earlier looked like Athletic Club’s Nico Williams was injured. However, that proved to be a false alarm and he’s expected to be fit for both legs.
The injury worries didn’t stop there for Athletic as another injury to a key player has now been ruled ‘worse than expected’. Could he miss both legs for the Man Utd semifinal?
Athletic Club injury update before Man Utd clash
Ernesto Valverde has done an amazing job with the Basque club but that has mainly been done by using a core of extremely good players instead of the whole squad being world-class.
Valverde could be without one of those players for at least the first leg on Thursday, with the player potentially missing the second leg too.
El Correo reports that the injury to their star player Oihan Sancet is ‘worse than expected’, with the player now set to miss the first leg and in doubt over the second.
Sancet picked up a hamstring injury against Las Palmas in La Liga and Athletic have learned the results of the testing he underwent, getting the worst-case scenario.
Sancet’s injury will force Athletic to be creative since he’s played seven games in Europe, scoring and assisting twice each, while also being the club’s top-scorer domestically this season with 15 goals.
Casemiro will be one who breathes a sigh of relief as he would have been directly up against Sancet in attacking midfield but that threat looks to be subsiding now.
Man Utd need to concentrate on themselves
Sancet’s injury undoubtedly makes Athletic Club weaker and United can use any competitive advantage they get but it’s not like he was the only quality difference between the two teams.
Even with Sancet, United have the better team on paper, just like they did against Lyon. Nobody needs reminding of how needlessly difficult Lyon was allowed to become!
Ruben Amorim might change a thing or two now that Sancet is unavailable but he will be eager to concentrate his players’ minds that they need to do the controllable right.
As long as United play at their best like the calibre of players they possess, Athletic won’t be the ones celebrating at the end of potentially 180 minutes, Sancet available or not.
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