Man Utd injury woes continue as quartet forced off as Ten Hag reacts to Liverpool defeat

Manchester United’s pre-season injury woes continued as four players were forced off during the 3-0 friendly defeat to Liverpool in South Carolina.

Boss Erik ten Hag has had to deal with several issues during their pre-season tour of the United States having lost new signing Leny Yoro for three months with a foot injury, while striker Rasmus Hojlund picked up a hamstring strain in their defeat to Arsenal.

United suffered more problems in their win over Real Betis as Marcus Rashford and Antony were then withdrawn with issues, although both went on to play some part in the loss to Liverpool, but defensive trio Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof and Evans all appeared unable to continue.

Lindelof was taken off at half-time as a precaution while Evans was withdrawn due to illness.

Wan-Bissaka, who has been linked with West Ham during the transfer window, went down in the 80th minute and was treated on the field before James Scanlon replaced him, while 21-year-old Will Fish was also unable to continue following a challenge with Liverpool forward Harvey Blair.

Harry Maguire was left out of the game against Liverpool as a precaution.

Ten Hag told MUTV: “We have to see what has gone on.

“The assessment, of course, with Will Fish is it’s an impact injury. We also had to sub Jonny Evans at half-time because he was ill. Victor Lindelof was a precaution. So, yeah, there are some injuries, but we have to see how bad it will be.

“Pre-season is always tough. But, yeah, Harry Maguire, as a precaution, we leave him out.

“And we had, of course, some injuries, but that is part of club football. We have to develop our team and make some good progression.”

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First-half goals from Fabio Carvalho and Curtis Jones gave Liverpool a strong advantage at the interval despite plenty of opportunities for United, and Konstantinos Tsimikas made it three just after the hour-mark.

It was far from plain sailing for Liverpool though as the Reds had to rely on some excellent goalkeeping from Caoimhin Kelleher and Vitezslav Jaros to keep the Red Devils at bay.

And Ten Hag said after the game that Liverpool’s “efficiency” in front of goal was key to their victory.

“As I said, I think there were good bits,” the manager said of his own team’s performance. “And the first goal is always very important.

“I thought Liverpool played very well, but they were also very efficient.”

Slot appeared to agree with his compatriot, admitting that his side were not in control of the game, despite the scoreline.

“We are very happy with the result, we scored some really nice goals,” said the 45-year-old. “But I don’t think we had enough control over the game because United were threatening us more than a few times.”