Manchester United are locked in talks over releasing Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui for the Africa Cup of Nations, and still don’t know if they will be available for Monday’s clash with Bournemouth at Old Trafford.
The match falls on the deadline day set by FIFA for players to report for Afcon duty after world football’s governing body allowed them to stay with their clubs for an extra week.
Mazraoui is due to be in action for hosts Morocco in the opening game against Comoros a week on Sunday, but Mbeumo and Diallo aren’t in action for Cameroon and Ivory Coast until Christmas Eve.
Two years ago, United negotiated with Cameroon to delay goalkeeper Andre Onana’s departure so that he only missed one game for the club, and head coach Ruben Amorim revealed that talks with all three football federations are continuing.
‘We are waiting until the last moment to have all the players available to choose the best team to start the game,’ said Amorim on Friday. ‘I expect to have a decision today or maybe tomorrow.
‘Every national team has their ideas about when they want the players. I don’t know if it’s going to be the same situation (with each player). It depends on the games.
‘It’s frustrating but at the same time nobody knows who is going to play. So it’s a good thing, I think. We have players to cope with everything, and with a long week you can see a lot of things to prepare the game and any situation.’
Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt remain absent for the visit of Bournemouth, but striker Benjamin Sesko could feature for the first time since sustaining a knee injury at Tottenham five weeks ago.
‘Maguire is out, De Ligt is out,’ Amorim said. ‘Ben we have to see. We have to see if he’s available. He had some (food) poisoning but we’ll see. Let’s wait. We have two training (sessions) still. Benjamin we will assess.
‘(De Ligt) has something in his back. I don’t know for sure. Sometimes you see it’s not a big injury because he finished the game quite well against Crystal Palace, but he has some pain.
‘So, you sometimes think that it’s going to solve during this week but sometimes he feels a little bit of pain and we have to be careful with that.’
