Manchester United will continue to be without one of their most important players for Sunday’s Premier League clash at Anfield
Manchester United will remain without Lisandro Martinez against Liverpool on Sunday as the defender continues to recover from an ACL injury.
That news has been confirmed by Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim, who said ahead of this weekend’s Premier League clash. He said: “Licha is near, but almost returning to the trainings with the team.”
Martinez has been out of action since injuring his ACL against Crystal Palace back in early February. He did feature when Liverpool last played United, as he opened the scoring in the 2-2 draw at Anfield in early January.
Martinez has come up against Liverpool four times since joining United. He has been involved in just one win, as the Red Devils beat Liverpool 2-1 in the 2022-23 season. He was part of last season’s 3-0 loss at Old Trafford and the embarrassing 7-0 loss at Anfield in 2023.
Ruben Amorim hails Lisandro Martinez importance
While Martinez has only won one of his four outings against Liverpool since arriving at Old Trafford, manager Amorim was keen to underline the player’s importance in a recent press conference.
Speaking last month, Amorim said of Martinez: “It’s really important [that Martinez is nearing a return]. When you have that injury, you recover a lot of times very fast and then there is a boring part where it looks like you don’t go to the next step.
“We miss Licha a lot. We miss the aggression in this moment, how aggressive he is on everything he does, we miss him. But he’s always there in every meeting, even in training, he stays there to watch the training. I think we need Licha in this team.”
United play with three central defenders and with Martinez out, Luke Shaw has been filling in at left centre-back this campaign. It is likely the former Southampton man will be used in that position again at Anfield on Sunday as United await Martinez’s return to full fitness.
Other Man Utd injury concerns ahead of Liverpool
Providing an update on United’s other players who could miss out against Liverpool, Amorim said on Friday: “Mazraoui, I don’t know. The rest of the guys, the national team [players], they are ready. But, if you saw the games, some players play in Japan, so we need to be careful, to give more time.
“Diogo [Dalot] didn’t play the last game [with Portugal], he was here [yesterday]. Bruno played 62 minutes, we gave [him] one more day [to recover].
“We try to balance everything to have everyone ready. But they are ready, the guys are returning from national teams. They are ready to play.”
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