‘Not available’: Rangnick confirms new Manchester United injury blow before Southampton clash

Ralf Rangnick, manager of Manchester United, has provided a fitness update before the match against Southampton at Old Trafford.

Nemanja Matic was an unused substitute for Manchester United against Burnley on Tuesday night, but he has been ruled out of this match.

Rangnick also stated that Eric Bailly is still unavailable at the heart of the defense, while Fred continues to test positive for Covid and is also out.

Better news comes from left-back, where Alex Telles has returned to compete with Luke Shaw.

“Alex began training again yesterday. He might be available; I’ll have to talk to him after training today about how he feels because he’s been out for a week and a half, almost two weeks, but he participated in training yesterday,” Rangnick told the club’s website.

“The three players who will not be available tomorrow are Eric Bailly, Fred, who is still testing positive, and Nemanja Matic.” He is experiencing shin pain.

“He’s been having these issues for a few of days, almost a week.” He was still accessible, but he was unable to train for the last two training sessions and will not be training today.

“Those are the three players who will be unavailable for tomorrow’s game.”

With Matic and Fred out, Scott McTominay will likely continue to anchor the midfield, with Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba either side of him in a 4-3-3.

Rangnick decided to replace McTominay with Jesse Lingard as United was chasing the game on Tuesday night, leaving a very attacking midfield trio.

Given the dearth of alternatives, the German will be hoping he doesn’t have any fitness difficulties in that area of the field.

Matic was unlikely to play from the start, but he could have come off the bench if United needed to finish the game – but not now.