Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has been ruled out of the FA Cup final against City.
Maguire has been sidelined for two-and-a-half weeks with a muscular injury but he was included in Gareth Southgate’s provisional England squad for the European Championship on Tuesday.
However, the 31-year-old’s injury has not healed in time for him to be considered for selection against Premier League champions City on Saturday.
Despite the absence of Maguire, United will be without only three players at Wembley. Tyrell Malacia has missed the entirety of the campaign with a knee injury and Luke Shaw has not played since February 18 due to a hamstring problem.
Victor Lindelof, Mason Mount and Anthony Martial have trained this week and could be included in the 20-man matchday squad after United’s final pre-match training session on Friday.
“Yeah, Harry Maguire is unavailable but for the rest, all of the players you mentioned are available,” United manager Erik ten Hag said. “Tomorrow final training and we make final decisions but the way I see it now it looks good. “Maguire? It (the injury) didn’t heal as expected.”
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United could win their second trophy under Ten Hag, having lifted the League Cup last year, but Ten Hag’s position is uncertain after they finished eighth in the Premier League table and bottom of their Champions League group.
“It’s all about trophies and we have a huge opportunity to win a trophy,” Ten Hag stressed. “So the last ten years, not so many trophies in this club but we have an opportunity to win two trophies in two years.
“Every game I want to win and that’s it. I just focus on this game as I do for every game and I know it’s an important game because it’s about a trophy.
“An FA Cup final is a big event and we are there, even in the season which is not in our way we are there. We have an opportunity and it’s never been easy but we have to go for it and we will go for it.
“We have to believe as we did last season, as we know often against good opponents, we play our best football and I expect this to do the same again on Saturday.
“I came here to win trophies, Saturday I have the next opportunity, we achieved this, we earned this opportunity as a team and now we have to go for it.”