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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Manchester United get Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho boost

Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho should both be available for Manchester United's Premier League match at Burnley on Tuesday.

Pogba impressed on his return from a three-month lay-off with a thigh injury against Middlesbrough until he was substituted in the 82nd minute of the FA Cup fourth round defeat.

Sancho made way in the 100th minute but appeared to indicate he needed to be withdrawn shortly before extra-time. The winger walked back to the dugout and interim manager Ralf Rangnick confirmed Sancho had suffered cramp.

"Physically, I don't think we need to lift the squad," Rangnick said. "With Paul after having been out for three months, it was normal he was substituted after 65 or 70 minutes. Jadon had no injury, he was just feeling some fatigue and had some cramps, that's why we took him off."

United's only chance of silverware now this season is in the Champions League and they face La Liga champions Atletico Madrid in the round-of-16 later this month.

United have not progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the competition since 2011, when their conquerors in the semi-finals, Schalke, were coached by Rangnick.

The FA Cup eviction by Boro marked United's earliest departure from the competition since 2014. "The players are disappointed like we are, this is football, it can happen," Rangnick added. "In 2015 under Louis van Gaal they lost (to Middlesbrough) in the Carabao Cup on penalties and this happened to us. This is our own fault, we should not have gone into extra-time and played on penalties, we should have decided the game and killed off the game in the first-half.

"I think we played well in the last couple of weeks in the league and also today in the first-half. I don't think we could have done a lot of things better apart from scoring more goals, but the way the team played I was more than pleased with our performance.

"But in the cup, it's about winning the game, progressing into the next round and we didn't do that in the end, which is why we are extremely disappointed.

"There is not a lot of time to prepare for the next important game at Burnley on Tuesday and we have to take our chances better and with more quality than we did today."

"For example, the chance Bruno had, if he has 10 chances like that in a game he will take nine of them and convert them, today he hit the post. I think he tried to place that ball too exactly, too accurately into the corner, it can happen, he didn't do it on purpose.

"Now it's putting our full focus on the other two comps in the league and Champions League."

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