Man Utd forward Rashford set for return against Leicester
Football
By
Reuters
| Oct 16, 2021
Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford is set to be included in the squad for Saturday's trip to Leicester City while captain Harry Maguire has resumed training following a calf strain, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said on Friday.
Rashford underwent shoulder surgery in August and hasn't played since England's Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy in July.
"He's in the squad, if he's going to start or not, I can't tell you... He's worked really hard throughout the lay-off. Been really bright this week and had a 60-minute involvement behind closed doors last week, so he's raring to go," said Solskjaer.
Maguire, who last played three weeks ago against Aston Villa, trained on the grass on Friday for the first time since his injury but is unlikely to feature against his former club.
Solskjaer confirmed that Maguire's centre back partner Raphael Varane will be out for "a few weeks" due to a groin injury he picked up while playing for France.
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"International breaks are sometimes the time to cross your fingers and hope for the best because as we see with Raphael... but Victor (Lindelof) and Eric (Bailly) played in the internationals and got good game time," said the Norwegian.
Midfielder Fred and striker Edinson Cavani will also be unavailable following their involvement in the World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Uruguay on Thursday.
United have a tough run of fixtures coming up, with Leicester followed by league games against Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, as well as home and away ties against Atalanta in the Champions League.
Solskjaer insisted that United would only focus on one game at a time.
"I can't think of Atalanta or Liverpool, only Leicester, the key is we think one game at a time. We're looking forward to this run, every good player wants to play the best teams and we've got some of the best teams coming up," he said.
"We've added some exciting players going forward. We've scored goals, it's a nice time to be an attacking player for us as well, we need to keep that going... (and) come together as a team and make sure we're hard to play hard against."
United are fourth in the standings with 14 points from seven games but are winless in their last two. Leicester are 13th with eight points.