Three players absent from Manchester United training ahead of Bournemouth fixture

Man Utd trained at Carrington on Thursday morning and three senior players were missing from the session.

Matthijs de Ligt, Benjamin Sesko and Harry Maguire were not spotted in Manchester United training at Carrington on Thursday. United take on Bournemouth in the Premier League on Monday, and Ruben Amorim will clarify the team news at his pre-match press conference.

Speaking about De Ligt’s injury after Wolves, Amorim said about his return: “I don’t know, sometimes you have an idea then you have to see day by day. I’m not going to say when he is coming back.”

De Ligt was absent against West Ham and Wolves due to his knock. Although the Dutchman did not participate in training on Thursday, he was present at Carrington and conducted external media duties.

It remains to be seen whether Sesko will return to face Bournemouth. The striker’s recovery from a knee injury is understood to have gone well, which hints that he could be involved.

The Bournemouth game was identified as a realistic return date for Sesko when he suffered the issue against Tottenham on November 8. Amorim provided an update on November 21, saying: “He is going to stay a few weeks out. I don’t know how long, but it’s not that serious. We have to be careful with him.”

Maguire picked up an injury, damaging his hamstring, in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham. Speaking last week, Amorim confirmed the English international was “still out” with the problem.

The senior absentees opened the door for Shea Lacey, Jack Fletcher and Tyler Fredricson to be involved with the training session. Lacey has been named in the last four Premier League matchday squads.

Amorim has hinted that players from United’s academy will be important when he loses Bryan Mbeumo, Amad and Noussair Mazraoui to the Africa Cup of Nations next week.

Amorim said: “I think it’s going to be hard, but then that is the good thing of the experience, we lived so many limitations last year, because we changed in January, and we didn’t bring the players.

“And then we had the injury of Amad for four months, all these things, so we are prepared for that, even it will be hard for us, but we have a different baggage to deal with that. And again, I think guys like Jack Fletcher, Shea, a lot of guys, they can step up, and we can send at the same time a message to everyone here, in the academy, that this is the future. But we are going to struggle and we have to be prepared for that.”

Amorim added of Lacey’s development: “I’m really happy with him. I think he struggled a little bit with injuries, they did a very good job balancing his body, you can sense that he can manage more load during training.

“He has a lot of talent, but when they come here, they can sense the speed is completely different, so they need to spend more time with us to be prepared, because our trainings are hard, at Premier League games, with the pressure it’s harder, so they need to be ready.”