Manchester United have suffered another concern during the September-October international break, with Noussair Mazraoui becoming the latest player to join the club\u2019s injury list.<\/p>\n
The defender was forced off during Morocco\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying win over Lesotho on Tuesday after going down midway through the second half. Mazraoui had attempted a tackle near the touchline in Morocco\u2019s half, won the ball, but came out of the challenge in discomfort. He clutched at his left hip or lower back as several teammates hurried over to check on him, before the referee called on the medical staff.<\/p>\n
Mazraoui left the field after 69 minutes and did not return. Morocco still have one more match in this international window, against Ghana on Sunday, but his involvement remains uncertain. A return to England for further assessment would clearly be the preferred outcome from United\u2019s perspective, especially with Ghana described as Morocco\u2019s toughest test of the run.<\/p>\n
Although Mazraoui has not been part of Michael Carrick\u2019s strongest XI this season, his value lies in his flexibility. The 28-year-old, formerly of Ajax and Bayern Munich, has filled in at both right back and left back in recent weeks and has been the main cover option for Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw. Any extended absence would therefore be a setback.<\/p>\n
United were already dealing with a lengthy list of unavailable players before this latest issue. Amad Diallo, Matthijs de Ligt, Manuel Ugarte and Tom Heaton had all been ruled out of contention before the break, and Mazraoui\u2019s problem lifts the total injury count to 11.<\/p>\n
There have also been fresh concerns elsewhere. Bruno Fernandes missed Portugal\u2019s win over Norway on Sunday, with Jorge Jesus saying it was an issue he had already been carrying for three games. As Jesus put it: \u201cHe told me he\u2019s been playing with that pain for the last three games, which is hindering him,\u201d Jesus explained. \u201cIt prevented Bruno from playing at his best against Wales. I prefer not to risk it in this game [against Norway] so he\u2019s fully fit for the Denmark match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick Dorgu also emerged as a concern when Denmark faced Wales last weekend. After starting against Norway, he lasted just 30 minutes against Wales before being sent home, with the problem appearing to be a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mazraoui\u2019s injury adds to United\u2019s growing list during the international break, with 11 players now sidelined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-20958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20958","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=20958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}