By Sam Preston

Rangnick offers injury update on McTominay after Brentford win

Scott McTominay was outstanding as Manchester United beat Brentford 3-1 last night.

United were poor again in the first half, but even during that period, McTominay was among the best performers before he came into his own in the second half.

The Scotland international helped United get a grip of the game physically as they were much improved after the break and pulled away.

With United 3-0 up, McTominay suffered an injury after an aerial duel and had to be substituted with six minutes to go.

After the game, Ralf Rangnick offered a brief injury update on McTominay to the club’s official website and the early signs are that the prognosis is not too bad.

He got a knock on the back and couldn’t breathe properly,” Ralf explained.

“I spoke to him in the locker room [after] and he should be okay for Saturday.”

United host West Ham on Saturday and McTominay will need to produce a similar performance to shackle Declan Rice at Old Trafford.

Rice has been linked with United for quite some time now, and the consensus is that United still need a new holding midfielder.

McTominay anchored the midfield in Rangnick’s 4-3-3 system last night, and embraced the responsibility in terms of getting stuck into challenges.

It looks like Rangnick has decided on that system moving forward, and while it may curb McTominay’s ambitions to get forward and score goals, it helps him use his energy to protect the defence.

He needs to build on last night’s performance, and it would have been frustrating if he got an injury which kept him out at the weekend on the back of such a good display.

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Sam Preston

Sam Preston is an NCTJ gold standard news and sports journalist who studied with the Press Association. He also has a 2:1 law with French law degree from the University of Birmingham, which included a year studying at Bordeaux Montaigne University. He is an FA Level 1 football coach who appeared on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show in 2018 and has also written digital football content and match-day programme pieces for Colchester United, Mansfield Town and Stockport County.