Michael Carrick has brushed aside fears of a setback for Mason Mount after Manchester United\u2019s preseason draw with Paris Saint-Germain, insisting the change was made purely as a precaution.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got kicked,\u201d the manager said. \u201cWe just wanted to be careful and look after him. We\u2019ve been lucky with injuries so far [during preseason], so we wanted to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
That suggests there is no serious issue for Mount, who has already carried an unwanted injury record since arriving from Chelsea three years ago. He has missed an estimated 70 matches out of a possible 152, and could be back in contention quickly when United meet Leeds United in Dublin, Ireland on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mount had been one of the more notable figures in preseason before the PSG game, often operating deeper than in previous seasons. That role has been viewed as one possible answer to United\u2019s wider recruitment problem, with three weeks still left in the transfer window and several positions still needing attention.<\/p>\n
Yet the deeper issue is not Mount alone. United\u2019s midfield was short on depth last season, and since then Casemiro has left while Manuel Ugarte has suffered a long-term injury. Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans have arrived with promise, but the balance is still one of two out and two in.<\/p>\n
If Carrick begins the 2026\/27 Premier League season with Santos, Tielemans, Mount and Kobbie Mainoo as his senior central midfield options, even one injury in that group could leave the squad exposed. Bruno Fernandes can play as a No. 8, as he did last season under Ruben Amorim, but that also moved him away from the No. 10 role where his assist numbers improved sharply.<\/p>\n
Tyler Fletcher has featured often enough this summer to suggest he is viewed more as cover than a regular starter. Santos said after the final whistle in Gothenburg that he \u201cprefers\u201d to play as a No. 6, while Tielemans looks best placed to start most often and Mainoo remains an intriguing option once he reports back after his post-World Cup rest this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick eases Mount fears, but United\u2019s midfield balance still looks open to question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1031,172],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-18340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-paris-saint-germain","category-epl","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}