Alexis Sanchez is not ready to return to competitive action with Manchester United after picking up an injury in the Copa America with Chile over the summer.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had initially hoped Sanchez would be able to play some part in United's two final pre-season encounters, against Kristiansund and AC Milan, and confirmed the former Arsenal player had started training again.
But after getting a hamstring injury chasing a long ball in Chile's third-place play-off against Argentina in the Copa America in early July — a tournament in which he scored twice, as many goals as he managed for United last season — Sanchez hasn't recovered in time.
He's very unlikely to be in Solskjaer's first team for their Premier League opener against Chelsea in just over a week's time.
“We have a few players back at the Aon Training Complex,” Solskjaer told MUTV when asked about player absences, confirming that Romelu Lukaku is still working on his fitness, amid transfer interest from Juventus and Inter Milan.
“Joel Pereira tweaked his back last week so he’s back there training. Romelu and Alexis are working on their fitness with Matteo Darmian. Eric (Bailly) obviously is injured and out until Christmas time."
Paul Pogba is also missing from United's squad for the AC Milan game, which kicks off this evening in Cardiff's Principality Stadium.
Pogba is another player who has been the subject of transfer interest this summer, but his absence is said to be related to a back injury.
“At the end of the session today, Paul got a back spasm, the same issue he had last week, when he missed the session in Norway. But I think he’ll be available early next week.”
