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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Manchester United squad vs Leeds United for Premier League fixture revealed

Jadon Sancho has been included in the Manchester United squad for their opening game of the season against Leeds.

The 21-year-old arrived at The Lowry Hotel with the rest of his teammates on Friday night ahead of the 12.30pm kick-off at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Sancho completed his £72.9million transfer from Borussia Dortmund last month but only reported for pre-season training this week.

The England international was unwell when he returned from his holiday in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week, which prevented Sancho from training with his new teammates at an earlier date.

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirmed at his Friday press conference Sancho would be involved but refused to clarify if the winger would start.

"Jadon is going to be involved, definitely," Solskjaer said. "He's had a good week. Unfortunately, he was ill after his holiday and we've lost out on a few days of training with him.

Pogba arrives at The Lowry (Eamonn and James Clarke)

"But he's gelled really well with the group and he has looked sharper than expected, so he'll be involved. I can't tell you if he'll start or not, though."

United returned to The Lowry for the first time since militant supporters prevented them from leaving the hotel on the day of their scheduled Premier League fixture with Liverpool on May 2, forcing its postponement.

Both fixtures between United and Leeds were played without supporters last season and this weekend's meeting marks the first fixture between the rivals with matchgoers present since September 2011.

Fernandes is certain to start (Eamonn and James Clarke)

"The important thing is what I expect from my team," Solskjaer stressed. "The opponents you can prepare for but for us it's about ourselves, we've had a good pre-season, the last couple of weeks have been really good with everyone back in.

"Even though we're still missing a few players through injury and COVID, we're still feeling confident and ready for the game."

Edinson Cavani is unavailable for United as he has still not resumed training six weeks on from Uruguay's elimination from the Copa America.

De Gea will be starting the season for the tenth time out of the last 11 (Eamonn and James Clarke)

Jesse Lingard is out after he tested positive for Covid-19 last week and Dean Henderson is still sidelined while he recovers from his bout of Covid. Eric Bailly and Amad elected to miss pre-season in favour of representing the Ivory Coast at the Olympics and are not available for selection.

Long-term absentee Marcus Rashford is sidelined until October, at the earliest, and Raphael Varane has still not been officially registered as a United player.

Confirmed United squad members:

De Gea, Heaton, Grant, Dalot, Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Lindelof, Williams, Shaw, Pereira, Fred, McTominay, Van de Beek, Matic, Pogba, Mata, Fernandes, James, Greenwood, Sancho, Martial

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