Man Utd without six players vs Athletic Bilbao after Ruben Amorim rules out trio

Manchester United will be without six players for the second leg of the Europa League semi-final against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday evening.

The Red Devils registered a comfortable 3-0 win over the La Liga outfit at San Mames last week, and they are in pole position to make the final.

Athletic are without key players such as Nico Williams, Inaki Williams and Oihan Sancet. United should easily progress to the final on May 21.

Ahead of the second leg, manager Ruben Amorim has confirmed that Matthijs de Ligt is unavailable. The Dutchman picked up a knock early against Brentford last weekend.

The issue is not a big one, but he will be sidelined for the next two matches at least. Alongside him, Ayden Heaven and Toby Collyer have been ruled out.

Heaven returned to individual training today and could be involved before the end of the campaign.

Amorim said: “It is not a big issue [for De Ligt]. That is a good thing. He cannot play tomorrow and he’ll not play on Sunday [against West Ham United at Old Trafford] but then we’ll check day-by-day. The rest, Ayden doesn’t recover. Toby is not available.”

Aside from the trio, United won’t have the services of Joshua Zirkzee, Lisandro Martinez and Diogo Dalot due to injuries. Zirkzee and Martinez have been ruled out for the season.

Dalot has been sidelined with a calf problem. Amorim has hinted that there is a possibility that the Portuguese won’t be available for the remainder of the campaign.

We have excluded Chido Obi from the absentees list, considering the Red Devils did not register him in the List-A squad for the knock out phase of the Europa League.

Amorim rested eight players for the 4-3 Premier League loss at Brentford. We should see an identical line-up from the first leg against Athletic for tomorrow’s encounter at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils have been handed a huge boost with Athletic’s triple injury setback. A quick start with a goal should put the tie beyond the sight of the Basque outfit.

Stats from Transfermarkt.com

Article written by Sri Aswin .