While Manchester United haven’t confirmed the injury or timeline yet, well-placed sources suggest Patrick Dorgu (£4.4m) is set for a spell on the sidelines.

That could be as long as 10 weeks.

Having already looked at the potential positive impact Dorgu’s absence could have on Matheus Cunha (£8.0m), we now pick out some direct replacements for the Danish defender in Fantasy Premier League (FPL).

We’re limiting the candidates to £5.0m-and-under FPL defenders.

MARCOS SENESI (£4.8M)/JAMES HILL (£3.9M)

Bournemouth’s defence has flattered to deceive for a while. It’s one clean sheet in 14 league matches for the Cherries, and none in the last eight.

The autumn deterioration is visible in the rolling, five-game xG conceded graph below:

There have been some contributing factors. Injuries, especially to central midfielders, have been costly. Then there was the shaky form of summer signing Bafodé Diakité (£4.2m), who has struggled to adapt to Premier League life.

But hopefully, there are some green shoots. James Hill (£3.9m) was brought into the side for the faltering Diakite in Gameweek 19 and has formed a promising centre-back partnership with Marcos Senesi (£4.8m).

The xGC they allowed Liverpool (1.00, Statsbomb) on Saturday was the Cherries’ lowest since Gameweek 7.

Andoni Iraola certainly thinks things are moving in the right direction.

“I think we’ve been defending very well lately. I think even the other day against Brighton, we concede a stoppage-time equaliser but defending a lot lower. I think we are conceding less chances. I know probably we have still the set-play thing that we have to improve.” – Andoni Iraola, speaking on Saturday

If Bournemouth can improve on their clean sheet count (even one or two in the next six Gameweeks would be a start!), all the extras are already there.

Both Hill and Senesi are excellent distributors, with all three goals against Liverpool starting with the centre-backs. Hill claimed an assist for one of them. The £3.9m defender also has long throws in his armoury.

“I think we have Antoine before, now we have James Hill. I don’t think we have anyone else. So, I think it’s good that Hilly can help us in those situations.” – Andoni Iraola on James Hill’s long throws

Then, of course, there are defensive contribution (DefCon) points. Senesi is the Premier League’s leading player for those (36, the equivalent of nine clean sheets!) but Hill has also been competitive – even outdoing his centre-half partner – since his recall to the side:

TOP 5 DEFENDERS FOR DEFENSIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OVER THE LAST FIVE GAMEWEEKS

Hill was unlucky not to get DefCon points in Gameweek 22; Opta revised his total to 10 after the FPL cut-off.

And finally, the fixtures, which improve drastically now:

Senesi remains the safer pick of the two, simply because we can’t be completely sure about Hill’s longer-term minutes. The Englishman is in form and possesses the shirt right now but would two or three heavy defeats persuade Iraola to revisit, say, Veljko Milosavljevic (£4.4m)?

For the time being, at least, Hill is one of the stand-out sub-£4.0m picks.

NORDI MUKIELE (£4.5M)/DAN BALLARD (£4.6M)

Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m) was once a £4.0m pick himself but those days are long gone. He’s still a snip at the current price, however, and remains FPL’s best-value defender (based on points per million) even after five rises.

As we discussed after the weekend, Mukiele is on a run of eight successive matches without a blank. That is, he’s delivered an attacking return, clean sheet and/or DefCon points in all of those games.

Consistency has been the word all season. In fact, no FPL defender has hit 4+ points in more matches than Mukiele:

Mukiele has reached the DefCon threshold in over 50% of his starts. That rate is even higher (66%) when he starts as a centre-half.

The versatile Frenchman is at right-back at the moment, where his DefCon success rate is down at 33%. That’s certainly worth considering, especially with Dan Ballard (£4.6m) – himself with a 50% DefCon success rate when starting – now just £0.1m more expensive.

A massive threat from set plays, Ballard has had more big chances (eight) than any other FPL defender in 2025/26.

However, Mukiele – the safer pick due to his versatility and Ballard’s injury record – is compensating elsewhere too. Two assists in as many Gameweeks have taken him to five attacking returns for the season. Like Hill above, he is also on long throws.

The fixtures aren’t as good for Ballard and Mukiele as they are for some other candidates in this article, although only Gameweeks 25 and 26 are off-putting:

There’s also the Granit Xhaka (£5.2m) factor. Will the hitherto ever-present skipper’s absence lead to more results like Saturday’s? The Black Cats do, at least, get fellow midfielder Habib Diarra (£5.3m) back from a long lay-off and international duty, which is a major boost. He looked excellent in the opening month of 2025/26.

HARRY MAGUIRE (£4.3M)

A bit of a leftfield name this one but Harry Maguire (£4.3m) offers a sideways switch for those FPL managers still keen on Man Utd representation.

Maguire has returned to fitness just in time for Michael Carrick to take charge. The new interim boss is apparently a big fan.

And he’s turned in superb performances against Manchester City and Arsenal, winning the Man of the Match award in the latter.

With Lisandro Martinez (£4.8m) also back fit, there’s hope that United can improve on their dismal record of three clean sheets in 23 league matches. Carrick is even responsible for one of those, in the Manchester derby.

Maguire is actually third among FPL defenders for points per start (below) this season, although that average was helped by twice being taken off in games in which United have subsequently conceded.

On the flip side, however, Ruben Amorim’s oddly frequent centre-half subs being consigned to the dustbin should help Maguire in other areas.

DefCons, for instance. Maguire has only completed 90 minutes on three occasions this season, and he banked DefCon points in two of them.

Further forward, his towering presence at set plays has led to attacking returns against Chelsea and Liverpool. He really should have scored against City with a header last week, too.

Fixtures-wise, there are some nice ones coming up over the next five Gameweeks:

Matthijs de Ligt (£4.9m) may return in February but there’s still no exact timeframe, while there’s little wrong with Maguire’s displays at present anyway.

CHRIS RICHARDS (£4.4M)

Palace have struggled with injury, unavailability and the schedule over the last few months, and the Eagles are on an eight-match winless run in the Premier League.

But, they’ve played some tricky teams in that time (Chelsea, City, Newcastle, Villa etc). They’ve now got players back from the physio room and international duty, too, while they’ve finally got some breathers after months of playing weekend-midweek. Sunday’s display against Chelsea was actually encouraging.

As for Richards, he is among the top five defenders (with more than one start) for DefCon success rate this season:

If you’ve already got Joachim Andersen (£4.6m), Richards’ upcoming fixtures dovetail beautifully with those of Fulham:

MATTY CASH (£4.8M)

Matty Cash (£4.8m) has very little DefCon potential – but then few Villa defenders do. The Villans collectively have gained fewer DefCon points than any other Premier League team.

Rather, Cash’s appeal lies in good old-fashioned attacking threat, clean sheet potential and favourable fixtures.

Three of the next four matches are at Villa Park, while there’s also a trip to rock-bottom Wolves to come in the next five Gameweeks:

Cash is among the top five defenders for shots and key passes combined, meanwhile:

Defensively, there’s a real dichotomy between Villa’s goals conceded (a joint-third-best 25) and xGC (a joint-fifth-worst 33.49). With midfield shield Boubacar Kamara (£4.9m) now out, there’s added uncertainty at the back, so Cash is probably our least-favoured of these options.

WHAT THE RATE MY TEAM (RMT) POINTS PROJECTIONS THINK