Harry Maguire Manchester United 2021-22Getty Images

Man Utd face injury crisis as Rangnick confirms Maguire, Sancho & Fred all unavailable for Chelsea clash

Manchester United are facing an end-of-season injury crisis, with Ralf Rangnick confirming that Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Fred are all unavailable for their clash with Chelsea.

United will welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford in the Premier League on Thursday night as they seek to keep their faint hopes of a top-four finish alive.

Rangnick's side lost their last two games against Liverpool and Arsenal to drop to sixth in the table, and will be short on a number of key players for the Blues' visit to Manchester.

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What's the Man Utd team news?

Maguire was an unused substitute in the 3-1 loss to Arsenal last time out, and has now picked up a knock that will keep him out of the Chelsea game.

Sancho has been ruled out due to illness and Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw remain unavailable due to serious injuries. Edinson Cavani, meanwhile, is not due to return to full training until the end of the week.

“We have quite a few players missing tomorrow, quite a few with question marks," Rangnick told a pre-match press conference. "Aaron Wan-Bissaka can be available. Harry has an issue in his knee. Not in training yesterday or today.

“Paul [Pogba, is out]. Luke Shaw. Jadon is ill - he has had tonsillitis since yesterday, couldn’t train today, not available tomorrow.

"According to the team doctor, Cavani will be back in training on Friday."

Rangnick also gave an update on Fred's recovery from the hip issue he suffered in United's 1-0 loss to Everton on April 9, with the Brazilian not yet fit enough to return.

“Fred is not available. He tried to train yesterday, we had a conversation," the Red Devils' interim boss added.

"He's not fully fit, it doesn’t make sense with a muscular injury to play him early, taking the risk of reinjury.”

Who could fill in for Man Utd against Chelsea?

Rangnick was also asked exactly how many senior stars will be available against Chelsea, to which he replied: "We will try to play the best possible team, right now we have 14 in our professional team and the youngsters available, and three or four of those players will be part of the squad."

Argentine youngster Alejandro Garnacho has been on the bench for United's last three matches and could be in line for his debut at Old Trafford, while Hannibal Mejbri impressed in a cameo showing during the 4-0 loss at Liverpool.

"It's possible [Garnacho or other youngsters could play], we have quite a few players missing tomorrow, one or two still with question marks," said Rangnick.

"[We have to see if] Aaron Wan-Bissaka can be available, I already played Hannibal at Liverpool, it's possible but we have to be fair enough to those players, it has to be the right moment.

"They should have the chance to play well and perform well, it should be the right moment."

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