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A difficult afternoon for our young Reds who are beaten in Saturday’s U18 Premier League game at Finch Farm.

TEAM NEWS

United captain Harry Maguire made his return during the 3-2 win over Arsenal on Thursday evening, but both Nemanja Matic and Aaron Wan-Bissaka dropped out of the squad following the 1-1 draw with Chelsea last weekend.

Matic missed out due to a hamstring injury he sustained in training earlier in the week, while Wan-Bissaka suffered a hand injury against the Blues after colliding with Callum Hudson-Odoi. Luke Shaw was absent on Thursday evening, as he has been struggling with concussion and it remains to be seen whether he’ll return for the visit of Palace. Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani and Raphael Varane remain on the sidelines.

Palace are waiting on the fitness of defender Joachim Andersen, while James McArthur (injured) and Joel Ward (suspended) are out.

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Luke Shaw continues to be sidelined after sustaining a second head injury in a short amount of time, during the defeat at Watford. Carrick explained: “Hopefully, he won’t be too far away.”

Diogo Dalot and Alex Telles deputised to good effect against Arsenal in the full-back slots, while Harry Maguire came back into to the centre of defence as captain after his one-game suspension.

Raphael Varane, Paul Pogba and Edinson Cavani are working on their recoveries, while Phil Jones and Amad were among the substitutes on Thursday night.

Mason Greenwood has still not played since returning from testing positive for COVID-19, but he has been on the bench for the past two fixtures.

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Both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Nemanja Matic miss out on tonight’s game, with the pair having had injury concerns after featuring in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Explaining the situation with Aaron, Carrick said: “Hudson-Odoi stood on his hand [in Sunday’s game] so he’s in a fair bit of pain.”

However, he added that while Wan-Bissaka didn’t make it for today, it was “touch and go” – suggesting he could return to face former club Crystal Palace over the weekend.

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According to research conducted by United Review, our official matchday programme, Fernandes has played in a stunning 96 per cent of the games in which he’s been available to United.

Our no.18 is the only player to feature in all 19 fixtures this season and he’d missed just four matches previously – a trio of cup encounters with LASK, Brighton and Watford, plus the trip to Wolves on the final day of the 2020/21 campaign, when we were preparing for the Europa League final.

From his first 99 matches, the two-time Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year winner has 44 goals, with 21 of those arriving from the penalty spot.

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