Pogba ruled out for Manchester United again with ankle injury

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says the strength of his squad gives him selection dilemmas each week, but Paul Pogba will not be involved in his decision making this weekend as the midfielder continues to be ruled out through injury.

The France international played three times during the international break but has not featured for United in either of their two games since after aggravating a knock Solskjaer said he picked up while playing for his country.

The Norwegian confirmed the midfielder has an ankle complaint, but it is different to the problem which saw him sidelined for the majority of the last campaign.

“Scott (McTominay) and Paul (Pogba) didn't train this morning, weren't on the grass so look very unlikely for the weekend,” Solskjaer said in his pre-match press conference.

“Marcus (Rashford), Victor (Lindelof), Aaron (Wan-Bissaka) came through the session today so not 100%, Luke (Shaw) has just started his rehab out on the grass but is not back with the team yet, Jesse (Lingard) is back from his isolation period and has had a couple of days training and Phil Jones is out until after Christmas sometime.”

Despite a growing list of players with niggles, Solskjaer said he is happy with his squad and admitted he has issues picking his matchday squad.

“I feel very happy with my squad,” the United manager said. “We are getting stronger, I have issues every week with an 18-man squad: who do I leave out? We're in a good position.”

Two players who could be in contention for their first Premier League starts for United are Edinson Cavani and Donny van de Beek. Both played well in the midweek Champions League fixture and have recovered ahead of Sunday’s trip to St Mary’s.

“They’ll both be available to play and I'm sure if they do they'll be capable again,” Solskjaer said.

United go to Southampton looking to make it four wins in a row in all competitions, and the Norwegian manager is hoping to see an improvement from their two performances against the Saints last season, which resulted in two draws.

“Yeah of course we want that run to continue but we know how well Southampton have done lately in the last year or so,” he said. “We have a very good away record and we’re up there since the turn of the year.

"January transfers in and out were a big turning point and since then we’ve been pushing up the table and getting that consistency. We know that this is a nice challenge and good test for the team to see if we really learnt our lessons from the games we played against them last season.”