Ange Postecoglou doesn’t expect to have any of our injured players back for Sunday’s FA Cup tie at Aston Villa, with Richarlison the latest to pick up a problem.
The forward went down holding his leg towards the end of the first half of Thursday evening’s Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, with our Head Coach revealing after the game that the Brazil international has suffered a calf injury.
Speaking to the media this morning (Friday 7 February) ahead of our return to FA Cup action at the weekend, Ange said that in addition to Richarlison, it’s as we were in terms of unavailable players when we head to Villa Park.
“We’re still hopeful we’ll get at least two, maybe three back for the Manchester United game,” he explained.
“We’ve got two full weeks of training where I think over these two weeks we’ll get the majority of the players back with a bit of luck, providing we don’t lose anyone else like we lost Richy last night.
“I knew this week was going to be a challenging week in terms of personnel because we just weren’t going to get anyone back.”
On Richarlison, the boss added: “It’s disappointing for him. He was emotional last night because he’d worked really hard to get himself back, but again it’s another setback that he’s going to have to deal with and we’ll hopefully get him back as soon as possible.”
Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson all remain sidelined, while striker Dane Scarlett is cup-tied – much like he was on Thursday night in the Carabao Cup – after playing in the FA Cup for Oxford United during his loan spell there.