Ruben Amorim confirms worrying extent of Bruno Fernandes injury after Man Utd captain forced off in loss at Aston Villa

Fernandes started the game brightly at Villa Park, but towards the end of the first half kicked the ball out of play under no pressure after appearing to tweak his hamstring. He managed to carry on playing until the half-time break but was then substituted for the second half. The Portugal international returned to the bench in discomfort shortly after kick-off.

Speaking to the media post-match, Amorim discussed Fernandes' injury and how long he may be out for.

"I think it's soft tissue so it's going to be a while. We'll see," he told Sky Sports. "We need to prepare all the guys that we have for the next game. We cannot use anything as an excuse. No one is going to remember these problems, so let's cope with that. It will make us stronger.

"I saw from the beginning of the season a team that is going forward, but sometimes relax a little bit and sometimes is not there in the right moment to fight. Today was completely the opposite, we were the better team against a team that is strong at home and in a very good run. We were really unlucky today."

Regarding the game in general, Amorim said: "I think we were the better team today. We were unlucky, even with the injury of Bruno, but during the game even without him we were the better team. We blocked the transitions quite well and they did really well. We did a very good job that no one is going to remember tomorrow because what matters is the result.

"We already knew that Aston Villa play with everybody inside and we needed to overload that situation. We have been training like that. We did different options, we can use different starting elevens depending on the game, so we are improving. Again I think we deserved so much more today but the better team did not win."

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Fernandes' countryman Diogo Dalot recognised that the captain must have been in serious pain to have asked to come off given his impeccable fitness record since joining United in 2020, only missing 17 of 325 games for them across all competitions.

"It's massive," Dalot said of the injury. "We don't know how bad it is but for him to come off, we know how tough he is. Hopefully it's not too bad and we keep with him for the next games.

"This is the time that opportunities come for other players and the time you step up and show you deserve to be in the team and play more minutes. I think that's how the players who get opportunities should look at it. We are Manchester United and we have to find a way to win.

"We had good moments in the game. We kept pressing them high and knew they wanted to play long and if we won the second ball we could control the game. I think we did it quite well in the first half with one or two chances.

"They had a great first goal and credit to Morgan Rogers, it was a great goal. The second half we tried to do the same things. On the ball we were comfortable and could have tried to find the spaces in behind because they had a quite high line.

"We did enough to score more goals. We couldn't take the chances we had and that's overall [story] for today."

Fernandes is unlikely to be available for United's Boxing Day fixture at home to Newcastle. The Red Devils will then host Wolves on December 30 before trips to Leeds and Burnley to start their 2026.