Ole's injury update on six defenders

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has provided us with an exclusive update on the fitness of six first-team defenders.

The manager sat down with our reporter Stewart Gardner at the Aon Training Complex on Friday morning and offered the latest news on the squad.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Liverpool, the boss was asked for information regarding the availability of Eric Bailly, Diogo Dalot, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw and Axel Tuanzebe.

Tuanzebe has played just six minutes of Premier League football since the start of October due to injury, while Rojo has not featured since November.

The duo do not appear close to an immediate comeback, but there is more positive news regarding the four other defenders after Ole confirmed they could soon return to first-team action.

“Axel had a setback but he’s working his way towards fitness,” the boss told us. “Eric and Tim are fit and available.

“Luke is on the training pitch today [Friday] to see how he is. He’s been ill and he’s had a little issue. Diogo is back and Marcos is still not ready. He had a bad calf injury that took longer than we expected.”

The availability of four more defenders is great news for Solskjaer, who has only had three fit centre-backs to choose from in recent weeks.

Bailly and Fosu-Mensah - who recently featured for our Under-23s - have not played a first-team match this season through injury.

Shaw’s absence has been less long term, with the left-back missing our last two matches, while Dalot played earlier this month in the Emirates FA Cup match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.