Van Gaal Provides Injury Update

Louis van Gaal was without the services of defender Marcos Rojo and winger Jesse Lingard for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leicester City, after the pair sustained injuries during the week.

Both Rojo and Lingard featured in the draw with PSV Eindhoven, but the duo did not travel to the King Power Stadium with the rest of the squad after picking up what the manager described as "minor injuries" in a post-match interview with MUTV.

Rojo’s knock was also cited as the main reason why van Gaal reverted to a back three for the trip to the Foxes. Speaking after the match, the manager said: “I could not play with them. Lingard was a player in good shape so it was a pity.

“Rojo is our left defender and that’s also a pity because then I have to put my players in a different shape and different organisation. Because of that, I had to play with three defenders."

There was also cause for concern when skipper Wayne Rooney was clearly hurt before being withdrawn in the 68th minute. However, van Gaal later explained that the injury was not as serious as originally feared.

He said: “No, I don’t think it’s an injury to Wayne. I wanted to change one of the strikers. It could have been [Anthony] Martial or it could have been Rooney because they were not always running behind the central defenders, and I want that. Because of this, I wanted to change but then he was limping and then the choice was easy for me to make.”