Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick has explained his team selection against Atletico Madrid.
The German has made three changes to the United side that beat fierce rivals Leeds United 4-2 on Sunday.
Scott McTominay is the biggest omission from the starting line-up. The Scot produced an all-action midfield display and loved the highly-charged clash against the Whites at Elland Road.
United’s number 39 showed off his war wounds on Instagram after Marcelo Bielsa’s side, but he isn’t part of the matchday squad to face Diego Simeone’s side due to illness.
Fred, who came off the bench to score against Leeds, comes into the team in McTominay’s absence.
Although Raphael Varane returns to the starting line-up, Victor Lindelof keeps his place in the side and looks set to start at right-back with no natural right wing-back in the team.
That means that Aaron Wan-Bissaka has dropped to the bench alongside Diogo Dalot, who will no doubt be disappointed he hasn’t earnt a recall.
Marcus Rashford comes back into the XI with Jesse Lingard, who made his first Premier League start at the weekend, dropping to the bench.
Speaking on MUTV about the reasoning behind his selection, Rangnick said: “He’s [McTominay] ill unfortunately. I spoke with him this afternoon, he’s still not feeling well.
“We had a little bit of hope that he might be available but he was not so we had to find the best possible formation and line-up without Scotty.
“We decided to choose a line-up and a formation in which we could always react no matter what Atletico do.
“We could also play with different formations and even change during the game and still have enough physicality and also physical size at set pieces no matter if it’s for us or for them.”