Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko was absent from Manchester United\u2019s squad for the trip to Fulham after Michael Carrick confirmed the striker is being assessed over an unspecified injury.<\/p>\n
Carrick had managed \u0160e\u0161ko carefully at the start of the season, using him as a substitute in United\u2019s first four Premier League matches. The 23-year-old was then fit to start the club\u2019s opening Champions League game of the campaign, where he scored in the win over Sabah FK, and he also featured in Wednesday\u2019s Carabao Cup meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, \u0160e\u0161ko had sounded upbeat about his recovery, saying: \u201cI think waiting a little bit longer was a great decision, and now it\u2019s healed, so it\u2019s perfect,\u201d \u0160e\u0161ko insisted earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s latest update offered little clarity on the situation. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: \u201cHe pulled up after the game the other day with a little bit of pain, so we\u2019ll have to see how he is,\u201d was all the Manchester United manager would offer.<\/p>\n
In \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s absence, Matheus Cunha kept his place through the middle. That decision left some fans frustrated, particularly with Amad Diallo unavailable on the right and Bryan Mbeumo regularly deployed there instead of being used as a central option.<\/p>\n
Cunha brings link play and combines neatly with Bruno Fernandes, but he does not offer the same direct running that Mbeumo provides. Even so, Fulham\u2019s tendency to leave space for opponents this season means United may still find openings without \u0160e\u0161ko.<\/p>\n
There is also anticipation around Carlos Baleba, who has still not made his Manchester United debut. Signed for $93.7 million (\u00a370 million) and unveiled almost a month ago, he arrived from Brighton with an ankle injury. His first appearance could be confirmed at Craven Cottage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0160e\u0161ko missed United\u2019s visit to Fulham while Carrick waits on an injury assessment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[713,1083,179],"tags":[1047,242,180],"class_list":["post-19955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fulham","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","tag-champions-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19955","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=19955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}