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News of Marcus Rashford’s fitness has still not come from Manchester United, but it seems unlikely that he will be risked for the side’s Europa League quarter final first leg tie against Sevilla.
Rashford limped off the pitch on Saturday as the Red Devils overcame Everton 2-0 in the Premier League. It appeared to be a groin injury, which usually take a minimum of 2-3 weeks to heal.
In Sunday’s game, Anthony Martial played 30 minutes for the third consecutive match, so the obvious choice for manager Erik ten Hag would be for the Frenchman to lead the line in Rashford’s absence.
This would mean Jadon Sancho continuing on the left wing and Antony on the right, both of whom were excellent against the Toffees.
Wout Weghorst is another option, but Alejandro Garnacho remains sidelined through injury.
In midfield, with the exception of long-term casualty Donny van de Beek, United are at full strength, with Casemiro returning from suspension and Christian Eriksen continuing his comeback from injury.
Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes are expected to play despite being one yellow card away from a suspension.
In recent games Fernandes has been deployed in a deeper role, which he played to great effect on Sunday. If Eriksen is not yet ready to play 90 minutes, as we suspect, then we could see the Portuguese there again, with Casemiro holding and Marcel Sabitzer in the number 10 position.
Fred and Scott McTominay are other options, but Ten Hag usually prefers one strong holding player and two creatives.
In defence, Luke Shaw could return after a slight injury but Ten Hag could elect to keep Tyrell Malacia in for another game to allow the England man time to rest up and recover.
Raphael Varane is expected to come back in for Harry Maguire at right centre back, with Lisandro Martinez continuing at left centre back.
The battle for the right back slot continues and it’s hard to predict who will get the nod. We have opted for Diogo Dalot as this is a home game and Ten Hag has said on a number of occasions that he believes the Portuguese is better in attack than Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
With David de Gea in goal, then, this is our predicted line-up for Thursday’s 8pm kick-off:
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