Manchester United’s dire injury situation has forced manager Erik ten Hag to turn to the academy once again just before the Premier League game against Crystal Palace on Monday.
It was revealed that Harry Maguire sustained an injury during training which will see him miss three weeks of action with the club hopeful that the former skipper will return in time for the FA Cup final.
The defence has already been devastated by injury and for the last three games, the England international was being partnered by Casemiro at the heart of the backline.
But with Maguire now out, the Dutch manager will need to get creative to try and find a solution. The Manchester Evening News revealed that U21 star Toby Collyer has been called up to the matchday squad.
Toby Collyer called up
The 20-year-old was sat on the bench for three Premier League games and one FA Cup tie during the period between February and mid-March before returning to the reserves.
Collyer has made 12 appearances for the reserves this season, playing all his games as the deep-lying playmaker and has one assist in those games.
The defensive midfielder played for an hour against the rampaging Arsenal reserve side on Friday who beat United in the PL2 playoffs.
He was spotted at the Manchester Airport ahead of the squad flying down to London and the former Ajax coach could turn to Collyer in his hour of need.
Toby Collyer included in Manchester United travelling squad for Crystal Palace clash #mufc https://t.co/a78j2jdJon pic.twitter.com/ie2Nkor3da
— Man United News (@ManUtdMEN) May 6, 2024
The England U17 international has the experience of playing in that position during his time at Brighton’s academy and he is more experienced than U18 duo Louis Jackson and Jack Kingdon who have been training with the first team recently due to the injury crisis.
Jonny Evans recently returned to training but whether he can start the game is a big doubt. He sustained an injury while trying to play through the pain barrier against Chelsea and the Red Devils will be eager to avoid a similar scenario considering the games coming up.
Never-ending injury list
The 20-time English league champions are without four senior centre-backs in Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane, Victor Lindelof and now Maguire as well as young academy graduate Willy Kambwala.
Ten Hag could turn to Sofyan Amrabat or even one of his full-backs and it will be intriguing to see how the Red Devils approach the test against the Eagles.
United are currently languishing in eighth place in the Premier League and are in real danger of missing out on European football altogether for next season.
This injury crisis and a failing medical department have not helped the manager’s cause at all as he stares at an exit should his team not finish the season strong.
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