Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba is not fit to play in Thursday night’s match against Manchester City.
Jose Mourinho ruled the French midfielder out of the crunch match in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Pogba picked up an injury towards the end of last weekend’s 2-0 win over Burnley, which forced him to be substituted in the late stages of the game.
The ex-Juventus man is obviously one of the first names on the team sheet so Mourinho will have to do some juggling to organise his midfield against the noisy neighbours, as they tussle at the Etihad for a top four spot.
Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera, Wayne Rooney, Marouane Fellaini, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Matty Willock are all available for the game.
Willock is yet to make his United debut, but could feature as Mourinho rotates his squad to deal with a gruelling run-in alongside the currently successful Europa League campaign.
Juan Mata, Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are both out for the rest of the season.
Earlier in the week, Jose called on Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, who have been out injured themselves recently, to make themselves available for the game at the Etihad to fill in for the injured Rojo and a fatigued Eric Bailly.
Despite the setbacks and fatigue, the manager is still confident:
“We go with what we have, we fight with what we have, I trust the boys and I go with everything we have and we go until the last second of the season. The boys are fighters and we go.”
A win would see United swap places with City in the table, with the Citizens currently just one point ahead of United in 4th place in the Premier League.
