Ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League fixture against Omonia and this weekend’s Premier League match against Newcastle United, a senior Manchester United player has been training alone.
Erik ten Hag has seen quite a few major players sidelined already this season due to injuries.
Harry Maguire, Anthony Martial, and Donny van de Beek have been the most notable squad members to remain absent from first-team action for several games.
Simon Peach of PA has revealed that one of the most key players in the starting eleven has been isolated from the rest of the first team squad’s training at Carrington today.
United host Neil Lennon’s Greek-Cypriot side, Omonia, at Old Trafford at 20:00 BST tomorrow evening.
Raphaël Varane, however, is not expected to take part in the European clash.
Varane was substituted before half-time during the Manchester derby ten days ago, but was introduced towards the end of United’s subsequent victory against Everton on Sunday.
He is currently suffering from a sprained ankle.
Varane has already missed 104 days (19 matches) of his short United career through injury or illness.
The Frenchman had begun the season in fine-form as he struck up an excellent partnership with new signing Lisandro Martínez.
Before the City defeat, Varane and Martínez had only conceded two goals when paired together across all competitions (five matches).
Varane’s physicality, experience, and reading of the game had started to become intrinsic to Ten Hag’s desired style of play as well as to the rather youthful backline.
Although Varane has been undergoing solo training today, Ten Hag will hope that there will be enough respite for him to regain sufficient fitness and wellbeing and be reintroduced into the fold on Sunday against the in-form Newcastle.
Newcastle will most likely be invigorated after their 5-1 mauling of Brentford on Saturday – Varane’s potential absence from the fixture would only heighten their confidence.
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