Manchester United have decided not to risk Cristiano Ronaldo against Aston Villa after he complained of minor muscle problems over the last couple of days.
The striker isn't in the matchday squad for the FA Cup third-round tie, while Phil Jones (calf) and Jadon Sancho (hamstrings) are also ruled out due to minor injury concerns.
This is the first game Ronaldo has missed through injury since his return to the club in the summer and Edinson Cavani will lead the line in his absence, while Marcus Rashford is also back in the side.
“I wouldn't say they are injured but they have muscular problems," Rangnick told MUTV of Jones, Sancho and Ronaldo.
"I spoke to Cristiano yesterday before training and he said he’d had some problems for the last couple of days, spine minor problems and in the end we decided it would make more sense not to take any risks in a cup game that could last 120 minutes.
"With Phil Jones, he’s having some minor problems with his calf, in a cup game tonight it doesn’t make any sense. With Jadon, he was supposed to be in the quad, he had some issues with hamstring on both sides so it doesn’t make sense to take any risks."
United have made five changes in total from the team that lost to Wolves a week ago. Diogo Dalot, Victor Lindelof, Fred, Bruno Fernandes and Rashford coming in, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Nemanja Matic have dropped to the bench.
Captain Harry Maguire is also still out, having missed the defeat to Wolves, but Rangnick hopes to have him available this weekend.
“He’s still suffering a little bit from his rib contusion, I hope to have him back for Saturday but for tonight he was not available," he said.
United turned in a poor display against Wolves seven days ago and Rangnick has urged his team to find a response tonight to set up a fourth-round meeting with Middlesbrough.
“Of course we want to make amends, we owe that to the fans and ourselves," he said.
"The first half against Wolves we didn’t get hold of the ball so this will be the most important tonight. In the pressing zone we try to dominate the game and play much more compactly and aggressively."
