Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is not believed to have been fit when he made his return from injury recently, playing poorly in performances against Leicester, Atalanta and Liverpool.
Maguire suffered a calf problem in the Premier League defeat to Aston Villa in September. He then missed a win over Villarreal in the Champions League and a draw against Everton.
But with Raphael Varane also succumbing to injury at that time, Maguire was suddenly thrown back in action sooner than expected. However, United shipped 11 goals in his first three games and his sub-par performances in those fixtures suggested he wasn’t ready to play.
A report from the Daily Telegraph has now claimed that Maguire was ‘rushed’ back to playing and was still ‘up to 10 days away’ from being ready when he started against Leicester.
At the time of his return, the United skipper had only had one day of proper training on grass to prepare. His match fitness was therefore lacking and it showed.
The Telegraph adds that ‘well placed sources’ suggest Maguire should have at least missed the Leicester game, for which Varane was already ruled out of, and a decision over his availability to face Liverpool a week later was made closer to the time.
Maguire was at fault for several goals during the 5-0 thrashing at Old Trafford.
The 28-year-old is starting to improve now that he has several games under his belt to build up his match fitness, but United are once more set to be missing Varane.
The summer signing suffered a hamstring injury in the first half against Atalanta this week and early estimates suggest he could be ruled out for up to four weeks until early December. That would mean missing games against Manchester City, Watford, Villarreal, Chelsea and Arsenal.
Victor Lindelof has also recently suffered an injury problem, which resulted in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having to ditch his new back-three system after less than one and a half games using it.
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Source : 90min