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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Tyrone Marshall

Manchester United squad vs Brighton includes Harry Maguire and Alvaro Fernandez

Harry Maguire is back in the Manchester United squad to face Brighton on Saturday after recovering from a knee injury which has kept him out of the last two games.

United have taken four points against Chelsea and Brentford in Maguire's absence and the captain will have to break up the partnership between Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof if he is to return to the side. Teenage left-back Alvaro Fernandez is also included in the squad and looks set to be amongst the substitutes for the third successive Premier League game.

While Maguire has returned to the squad, Ralf Rangnick has already confirmed that Marcus Rashford will miss out through illness.

READ MORE: United give injury and team news vs Brighton

"Harry is back in training," interim manager Ralf Rangnick said. "He trained the whole week since the second day after the Brentford game, so he will be available for tomorrow and part of the group.

"Edinson is in training, obviously, he came on as a substitute. Marcus Rashford will be missing, he has got bronchitis with a high temperature, so he won't be able to be part of the group and we have a question mark behind Eric Bailly, he called the doctor this morning and had some back problems and he is being checked right now. We will have to see if he will be able to train afterwards."

Harry Maguire arrives at Manchester Airport with the United squad (Eamonn and James Clarke)

When asked if Maguire would regain his place in the side, Rangnick replied: "This is a decision I have to make after training today, I don't want to tell our opponents the line-up to start."

Jesse Lingard is also included despite frustration at not being granted a farewell appearance at Old Trafford on Monday night.

Lingard's brother, Louie Scott, took aim at United in an Instagram post, describing Rangnick's decision not to bring him off the bench against Brentford as 'classless'. Rangnick said he paid little attention to social media but once again defended his decision from the victory against Brentford.

"To start with, I think in the last couple of weeks under my tenure he has played far more games than he used to before I came," Rangnick stressed. "Number two: on game day against Chelsea he contacted me in the hotel and asked me to release him from the game and to also release him from the training session the following day and two days after the Chelsea game for personal family reasons. And I also allowed him to do that.

Jesse Lingard signs autographs for fans (Eamonn and James Clarke)

"And this was the reason with only three subs, unfortunately - in the other leagues you have five subs - I had to take a decision between bringing on Edinson Cavani or Jesse Lingard, or even the young Alejandro Garnacho, whom I would have loved to have brought on and given a chance after going 3-0 up with 15 minutes to play. But I took the decision to bring on Edinson for the very reasons I just explained to you.

In total 12 players were pictured arriving at Manchester Airport, but the majority of the squad were able to park at the private terminal, with these squad members having to use a separate car park before being ferried to the terminal by bus.

Confirmed squad members: David de Gea, Dean Henderson, Tom Heaton, Diogo Dalot, Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Alex Telles, Alvaro Fernandez, Scott McTominay, Fred, Jesse Lingard

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