Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is hopeful some of his injured players will be available for Sunday's Premier League clash with Liverpool at Anfield.
Marcos Rojo joined the ranks of sidelined defenders during Wednesday's loss to Valencia and looks certain to miss out along with Victor Lindelof and Alexis Sanchez while Chris Smalling, Diogo Dalot, Anthony Martial, Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay are all doubts.
“The latest is to tell you again that in Valencia only David De Gea and Nemanja Matic were available to play and didn't travel by decision, apart from that the players that didn't travel were not fit to play in Valencia, all of them had injuries and they were not ready,” Mourinho said.
“All of them didn't train yesterday again and today they will be a little, I don't want to say test, but a little introduction to training to see the answer, adaptation and to see if we can increase a little bit tomorrow to have them for Sunday.
“But for sure, I hope, is better not to say for sure, I hope some will be available but for sure some will not be.”
“De Gea has played every minute and needed a mental rest,” he added on MUTV. “Matic has played every minute and needed a physical rest. I hope that between now and tomorrow’s training session we can have some positive news. But the situation is not easy.”
De Gea and Matic, who were rested for the trip to Spain, will return while Mourinho must decide whether again to leave out midfielder Paul Pogba, who failed to impress in Valencia.
Provisional squad: De Gea, Romero, Grant, Young, Valencia, Smalling, Shaw, Dalot, Bailly, Jones, Darmian, Fred, Matic, Pereira, Herrera, McTominay, Pogba, Lingard, Fellaini, Mata, Lukaku, Rashford, Martial.
