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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Chris Watson

Why Takumi Minamino can not face Manchester United after sealing loan transfer from Liverpool

Manchester United are back in Premier League action tonight when they take on Southampton, who will be without deadline day signing Takumi Minamino.

United are second in the table, three points behind leaders Manchester City, who have a game in hand, while Southampton are in 11th place and have lost three league games in a row since beating champions Liverpool at St Mary's - though they have claimed FA Cup wins against Shrewsbury Town and Arsenal in that time.

Saints made a late deadline day signing to bolster their ranks, bringing in Minamino on loan from Liverpool for the remainder of the campaign.

However, Minamino is not eligible to face United, reports HampshireLive, because the Japan international was not registered in time to feature in the match.

Meanwhile, Southampton have a host of injury problems ahead of the trip to Old Trafford.

Kyle Walker-Peters, Jannik Vestergaard, Mohammed Salisu, Nathan Tella, Michael Obafemi and Will Smallbone are all out, while Oriol Romeu, Theo Walcott and Ibrahima Diallo were all forced off with injuries during the defeat to Aston Villa.

As a result, Hasenhuttl is short of options at full-back and in midfield, and could hand a full debut to teenager Alex Jankewitz.

Speaking about injuries and the full-back issue, the Austrian said: "We are not so bad in that position as we have Will Ferry as an alternative on the bench if we need to.

“It looks like Jannik and Salisu are coming back as soon as one week or two weeks. This is important as we will then have more options in the back four and Kyle Walker-Peters' is not a big injury. It is getting better defensively and we have more alternatives."

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