Manchester United travel to Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League on Thursday looking to maintain their strong position of progressing to the knockout stages.
The Red Devils have taken four points from their opening two games against Astana and AZ, keeping a clean sheet in both ties.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have been hit with a number of injuries this season but several players are returning to full fitness. The United boss gave a team news and injury update at today’s press conference ahead of tomorrow’s game and was able to confirm that Jesse Lingard is back in contention. The forward had missed their last two games.
Speaking to MUTV, Solskjaer said:
”I don’t know how much game time we’ll give him but he looks like he needs to catch up on lost time.
“It’s been fantastic to see him with a big smile. I know Jesse from before. Of course now we expect him – and I think he expects – to kick on.”
However, Manchester United will be without David de Gea for their trip to Belgrade. The Spanish goalkeeper did play the full 90 minutes versus Liverpool over the weekend, despite suffering a thigh injury a few days earlier when on international duty.
It seems the Spanish goalkeeper is being rested in order to be 100% for the Premier League action at the weekend, as Solskjaer stated:
“David will be ready for Sunday [away to Norwich City] but we didn’t take the risk of travelling with him, no.”
Experienced duo Sergio Romero and Lee Grant are joined on the trip to youngster Matej Kovar instead.
Two other first team players have not made the trip to Eastern Europe either. Both Luke Shaw and Nemanja Matic are working on their fitness over in Dubai instead.
