Ralf Rangnick confirms hip flexor injury for Manchester United star Fred following Everton loss
Ralf Rangnick has confirmed that Manchester United star Fred has picked up a hip flexor injury during their 1-0 loss to Everton. The midfielder was subbed off in the first half after he could not continue to carry on with the blow that he suffered.
Man United’s defeat in and of itself is a difficult pill to swallow, which would now be made worse by this setback to the Brazilian. He endured the issue in the first half and had tried to fight off the blow by carrying on for five minutes or so. The midfielder was eventually subbed off for Paul Pogba in the 36th minute.
Speaking in the post-match interview to BT Sport (h/t The Athletic), Rangnick revealed that the 29-year-old ace suffered a muscle issue on his hip flexor during the first 45 minutes. The boss still hopes to recover him soon, but he is concerned about the lack of options in the defensive midfield.
“He has a muscular problem on hip flexor, hopefully he will not be out for too long. With Scott McTominay injured as well, if both defensive sixes are missing that wouldn’t be good for us.”
Major concern!
Since Scott McTominay is already out of contention with a foot issue, Fred joining him would make life difficult for us moving forward. That was further reiterated by the Man United manager when he addressed the subject in his post-match press conference (h/t The Athletic). He said:
“Fred had a muscular problem, another thing that is not the best, after Scott McTominay, our second defensive midfielder and one of our ball winners but we still had enough good players so we should be able to win the game.”
That means Nemanja Matic is the only available option as the holding midfielder in our squad for now. Matic has done well when he has featured recently, but he cannot play every single game as he is well past his peak physical condition. As such, we hope, just like the 63-year-old coach, that Fred can be recovered at the earliest to help with our case.
Cristiano Ronaldo was also seen to walk at full time with a bleeding leg, and the Red Devils’ boss was asked about the subject. The manager expressed that he has no clue about the cut suffered by the superstar.
“I don’t know about Cristiano.”
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We are next in line to face off against Norwich City in the league, but this defeat should give us a realisation not to take them lightly at all. The loss saw us fall even further in our pursuit to finish in the top four places of the Premier League table.
It remains to be seen if we can recover at least one of Fred or Scott McTominay in time for the clash against Norwich. Let’s hope that is the case, considering how we ended up with Pogba and Juan Mata as the midfield pairing at full time against Frank Lampard’s side.
