Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirms Man Utd injuries ahead of Crystal Palace opener

Manchester United will be without Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe for Saturday’s clash against Crystal Palace but manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is able to call upon Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba.

After their participation in the Europa League knockout stages, United were given permission to start their season a week later than the other Premier League sides.

United’s preparations have also been hampered by Pogba testing positive for coronavirus, Mason Greenwood landing in trouble on England duty and Harry Maguire convicted of aggravated assault.

United have also experienced frustration in the transfer market with just Donny van de Beek arriving this summer.

But United and Solskjaer will be hoping to make an ideal start to the new campaign by claiming three points against Palace at Old Trafford.

They will have to do it without Jones and Tuanzebe, who remain on the treatment table.

“Phil Jones is still out,” Solskjaer said. “Axel is not 100 per cent back with us yet, but he’s on the grass running, which is a positive.

“Apart from that, we don’t have any serious injuries, but, as we’ve said, the players are at different stages of their training programmes.”

Solskjaer can welcome back Shaw after he missed the end of last season with an ankle injury.

But the United boss admits his players are at different points of their fitness.

“The players are at different stages,” Solskjaer added. “Mentally, I think everyone’s ready. Physically, they’re at a different stage, some of them have played more games than others.

“So we’ll have to be clever and good about when to play players because we know this period now, until the first international, is a hugely important one.

“We need points and the players need games but some of them haven’t trained enough or had enough football. Some of them have been in quarantine, it’s just one of these situations which we’ve adapted to really well before and the players have done well.”

Source: Mirror.uk