Erik ten Hag revealed he has “an idea” of what Lisandro Martinez’s injury is, but did not elaborate further on the defender’s situation.
Martinez had to be carried from the pitch by Argentina team-mates Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel last night as he went down off the ball with what appeared to be a serious injury, late in Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Sevilla.
There were initial fears that the centre-back could have suffered an Achilles injury, but Ten Hag confirmed after the match that the issue was not in that area. He also stated that Martinez would not feature in United’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest this weekend.
Speaking in his press conference ahead of that match, Ten Hag was asked for a further update on the severity of Martinez’s injury after reports in Argentina suggested the defender has broken his metatarsal.
“It’s not even 24 hours,” Ten Hag told reporters on Friday.
“I can’t say in this moment, when we have news we will give it to you. Let’s do the medical, a full assessment, complete diagnosis, it doesn’t change in this moment. I have an idea but I don’t [want to] cause speculation.”
There is also concern over Raphael Varane, who went down in the first-half against Sevilla and was replaced at half-time by Harry Maguire, who scored an unfortunate own goal in stoppage-time as the LaLiga side kept themselves firmly in the Europa League quarter-final tie ahead of next week’s second leg in Spain.
It means Maguire and Victor Lindelof are set to both be given rare starts against Forest on Sunday, with Luke Shaw still an injury doubt and not certain to return for the trip to the City Ground.
On the defensive duo, Ten Hag said: “Decent centre halves, they proved in the past and this season we have four or five very good centre-halves who can do the job.”
