A busy Friday saw 13 Premier League managers deliver their pre-Gameweek 23 press conferences, following on from the seven we heard on Wednesday and Thursday.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was one of the baker’s dozen to hold their media gathering today and, perhaps predictably, he failed to bring us clear-cut news on Marcus Rashford, who was substituted with a knock against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday.
Solskjaer said:
I can’t tell you now. As I said with Harry [Maguire] a few weeks ago, of course we’re going to give him the absolute amount of time to find out. We’re going to do some more checks and treatment with him today.
Yesterday of course was just a recovery day anyway and some treatment for him. I have not seen him this morning but I’m not going to hold my breath. I would probably think that he wouldn’t be ready but let’s see. There are still 48 hours, more than that, so let’s see.
There were no further injury updates from Solskjaer in the broadcast section of his presser but Manchester United later confirmed that Marcos Rojo (muscle), Scott McTominay (knee) and Paul Pogba (ankle) remain out, while Axel Tuanzebe (unknown) is “on the road to recovery”.
Luke Shaw (hamstring) is also a doubt.
Jurgen Klopp is welcoming a few bodies back just in time for Double Gameweek 24, meanwhile.
Speaking on Friday, the Liverpool boss said:
Looks like Joel [Matip] and Fabinho, they trained completely normal yesterday and the day before. That means they are likely to be in the squad [v Manchester United].
The other three [Dejan Lovren, James Milner, Naby Keita] not but they are getting closer and closer. Dejan I think will train 100% from Monday on, the other two I don’t know exactly.
There was a big blow for owners of Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson ahead of Saturday’s match against West Ham United, with Carlo Ancelotti ruling both players out of the weekend’s game:
We are without for this game Richarlison. He had a little problem yesterday in training and will not be available for the game. I hope he will be available on Tuesday. Little problem on his knee, he had a little twist but nothing special. Minor problem but unfortunately will not be available tomorrow.
We are without Sigurdsson, he has minor groin issues.
Alex Iwobi (hamstring) may be back in full training early next week while Yerry Mina was passed fit after a minor injury concern in midweek.
Mina looks likely to be back in the starting XI in east London, with Ancelotti making ominous comments about Mason Holgate when talking of the Colombian’s benching in the win over Brighton:
It was just a rotation that I did just to keep Michael Keane involved. It was not a technical decision – Mina is going to play the next game and I am maybe going to rest Holgate.
David Moyes said of West Ham United’s injury latest:
We’ve got an injury to Felipe Anderson, which might mean that he might make it, he might not. He got a bad fall with ten minutes to go against Sheffield United, so we’re assessing that at the moment. It’s his ribs as he fell heavily from the tackle.
Arthur [Masuaku] has got a little bit of fluid in his knee which we’ve drained and we’re seeing how that is as well.
With Lukasz Fabianski (hip) out for “a few weeks”, new signing Darren Randolph may be thrown straight into the starting XI against the Toffees.
Moyes said of the ex-Middlesbrough goalkeeper:
He’s as fit as we can get him. Ideally we’d have waited a week longer but Lukasz’s injury has meant that we brought that forward. We’re happy to take the risk with it. He’s trained fine today.
I’ve got the choice between three goalkeepers at the moment and he’s certainly in that, yes.
Michail Antonio (hamstring) has trained but Moyes said he “couldn’t be sure” if the midfielder will recover in time for this weekend.
It was fairly quiet on the team news front at the Etihad, with Pep Guardiola saying on Friday:
Leroy [Sane] is still not training with us but everything is going really, really well. [Aymeric] Laporte he make another week with us training.
Everyone else is more or less fit, yeah.
Roy Hodgson had potentially bad news for Martin Kelly owners when rounding up Crystal Palace’s injury situation ahead of the meeting with Guardiola’s troops:
Obviously we were hoping to recover Max Meyer but that’s not been possible, so we’re one further player down. Joel Ward, who’s been missing for a long period of time, he returns.
Scott Dann returned, of course, before the last game. There are still a lot of players from the intended first team down and the bench once again will be made up largely of players from the under-23 squad.
On loanee Cenk Tosun, Hodgson said:
He’s physically fit to start but I still think he probably needs more time with us and he needs more time as close to a starting position as he is with us, which he’s not necessarily been in that situation with Everton.
Yan Valery (virus) is Southampton’s only confirmed absentee but Ralph Hasenhuttl offered up some interesting comments on Danny Ings ahead of Southampton’s busy week, saying:
He looks really in good shape and can work 90 minutes or longer. I think we rested him one time against Chelsea away, the rest of the games he played and it didn’t seem that he was struggling with all the games we played over Christmas.
It doesn’t mean that he should play in the future every game. We have now again a tough schedule in the next week, Crystal Palace on Tuesday, we’ll have a look. Especially our two strikers, they have to do a lot of running against the ball.
It’s not, hopefully, a coincidence that we have so few injuries. We are really trying to balance the sessions and trying the balance the workload for every player. It’s not always possible, we have a few guys that have to play always.
Wolves have lost Ruben Vinagre to a hamstring injury ahead of the trip to St. Mary’s but Nuno Espirito confirmed on Friday that Adama Traore was “OK”.
In their medical bulletin earlier today, Tottenham Hotspur reported that Ben Davies (ankle) and Tanguy Ndombele (hip) are continuing with the late stages of rehab, while Harry Kane (hamstring) and Moussa Sissoko (knee) remain out.
Hugo Lloris (elbow) has returned to training with the first-team squad, meanwhile, but Jose Mourinho later said in his press conference that the France international was aiming for a playing comeback in early February.
Will Hughes (hip), Danny Welbeck (hamstring) and Tom Cleverley (heel) are all making progress in their rehabilitation from injury but look set to remain sidelined ahead of Watford’s clash with Spurs, with Nigel Pearson saying on Thursday that he “doesn’t foresee” Kiko Femenia (hamstring) being involved despite a partial return to training.
Sebastien Prodl (knee) and Daryl Janmaat (knee) are a little further behind that quartet in their recoveries, meanwhile, and will also miss out.
Pearson said that new signing Ignacio Pussetto would “probably” be involved against the Lilywhites.
Asked whether Christian Pulisic (tendon) is still on course to be back in a “couple of weeks”, Frank Lampard said:
We’d like to think so, which kind of goes towards the break for us at the start of February. Hopefully, he’ll be back at the other end of that break.
DeAndre Yedlin (knee), Dwight Gayle (hamstring), Paul Dummett (hamstring), Javier Manquillo (hamstring), Yoshinori Muto (hip) and Ki Sung-yueng (knock) will all miss the visit of Chelsea but Fabian Schar (hamstring) was passed fit by his manager on Friday and Allan Saint-Maximin (hamstring) may also come into contention after a six-week lay-off.
Andy Carroll (unknown) faces a late fitness check.
Brendan Rodgers brought positive news on Wilfred Ndidi (knee), saying of his injured influential midfielder:
Wilfred Ndidi has made great progress, he’s out on training pitch working, which is great news for us, but he won’t be available for the weekend. We’ll see after that.
Wes Morgan (groin) will be assessed after a return to training, meanwhile.
Sean Dyche confirmed that Ashley Barnes underwent his hernia repair procedure on Friday but no timescale has been put on his return just yet.
Jay Rodriguez has recovered from illness, Robbie Brady is training following a calf injury and Chris Wood is available after having his broken nose re-set, meanwhile.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson is “unlikely” to feature because of a hamstring injury.
Daniel Farke said on Friday that Teemu Pukki (hamstring) is “ready to go”, while Grant Hanley (muscle), Josip Drmic (hamstring) and Ben Godfrey (ACL) have all returned from injury.
Eddie Howe confirmed that Bournemouth will still be without Arnaut Danjuma (foot), Chris Mepham (knee), Charlie Daniels (knee), David Brooks (ankle), Jack Stacey (hamstring) and Josh King (hamstring).
Aaron Ramsdale has returned to “light training” after a minor hamstring problem, while Lloyd Kelly (thigh) has also trained this week.
Dan Burn (shoulder) and Jose Izquierdo (knee) are Brighton’s only two confirmed absentees for the visit of Aston Villa, with Graham Potter saying on Thursday that Shane Duffy, Adam Webster and Alireza Jahanbakhsh should all feature after recovering from the “bumps and bruises” that forced them to miss training earlier in the week.
Aaron Mooy is also set to be available after sitting out the defeat to Everton with a knock.
Matt Targett (hamstring) was pictured in training for the Villans, whose boss Dean Smith said of Pepe Reina‘s chances of starting:
Yeah, possibly. He’s settled in fine straight away. We’re very fortunate to get someone so vastly experienced.
Chris Wilder reported a clean bill of health in his press conference and said that Sheffield United have a full squad to choose from ahead of the trip to Arsenal.
The Gunners will be without the suspended Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with Mikel Arteta saying of Sead Kolasinac (thigh):
The doctors are assessing him still. He had a normal session yesterday. He has been in some discomfort, we know this season that he had some little niggles, so we have to assess him and see if we can get him fit for Sat or he will be out.
On Lucas Torreira (hip), Arteta added:
Very similar situation [to Kolasinac]. He trained yesterday as well, still not 100 per cent confident so we will have to wait and see again. It is something related to his hip, that was producing some pain in the muscle. I don’t know. He is a tough boy, he wants to train, he wants to play and hopefully he will be available for the weekend
Arteta also revealed that Hector Bellerin (hamstring) “needs a little chunk of training sessions before he is ready to compete”.
More detailed information and predicted line-ups can be found in the Team News tab.
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