Michael Carrick’s defensive crisis has deepened as Leny Yoro is set to miss Manchester United’s crunch clash with Chelsea through injury.
Red Devils boss Carrick is without first choice centre backs Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez with the pair serving suspensions after picking up red cards against Bournemouth and Leeds respectively.
Maguire had missed the defeat by Leeds through his one-match ban after conceding a penalty against the Cherries, but was hit with a further suspension on Wednesday due to an X-rated altercation with fourth official Matt Donohue at the Vitality Stadium.
Martinez will serve a three-match suspension after being sent off for a hair pull on Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the defeat by Leeds on Monday.
With Matthijs de Ligt still unavailable due to a long-term back issue, it had left Carrick with just Yoro and Ayden Heaven available for Saturday’s game against the Blues.
But according to The Sun, Yoro has picked up an injury and wasn’t part of the travelling party to London on Friday afternoon.
Carrick will need to think creatively to patch up his defence, with full backs Luke Shaw and Noussair Mazraoui, or Casemiro, potential options to fill in.
‘I think we were obviously disappointed,’ said the United head coach on Friday of the decision to dismiss Martinez. ‘We didn’t agree with it. I think it was pretty obvious how I felt after the game, and I still feel that way.
‘I don’t want to go into it now. I think it is what it is. We’ve been hit with some decisions and at the end of the day now we’ve just got to accept it and move on, whether we like them or not.
‘We’re massively disappointed, of course. I think we had a few reasons to be disappointed in a big way over these type of situations over the last couple of weeks, or three weeks, but obviously now we’ve got to move on.
‘The decisions that have been made are something that we’re really disappointed with in many ways, but that’s it now. We’ve got to move on and we will do.’
Carrick backed former Arsenal youngster Heaven to step up for the trip to west London.
‘I think Ayden is in a good place. I know he’s in a good place. He’s obviously still young and he’s progressing through the early stage of his career really, so I think it’s pretty natural for him to play some games and maybe not some others.
‘He’s training really well, he’s learning, he’s listening, he wants to improve. So I think it’s pretty natural as a centre-half of his age. He’s probably well ahead of schedule in terms of the games that he’s played. He’s trained well, I’ve got no worries, he went away and played with England a couple of weeks ago and done well.’
Victory at Stamford Bridge would strengthen United’s grip on a Champions League spot.
United are seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea going into the game, with the top five qualifying for next season’s competition.
