Man Utd defenders to miss Bournemouth clash – while involvement of AFCON players still uncertain

Manchester United are set to be without Matthijs de Ligt again for the game against Bournemouth on Monday.

The defender has a back injury and will remain sidelined along with fellow central defender Harry Maguire .

However, striker Benjamin Sesko could return from his knee injury , though is a doubt for the game because of illness.

“Harry Maguire is out, Matthijs de Ligt is out, Ben [Sesko] we have to see,” Amorim said.

“We have to see if he’s available, he has some food poisoning but let’s wait, we have two training sessions still.”

On de Ligt’s injury, Amorim explained: “He has something in his back, I don’t know for sure, you see it’s not a big injury but he has some pain. We have to be careful with that.”

Meanwhile, United are set to lose Noussair Mazraoui , Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo to the Africa Cup of Nations this month.

But Amorim says he is still unsure of the exact date of their departures and whether they will play against Bournemouth.

“We are still in conversations with the national teams, the game’s on Monday, they are here, training and we are trying to prepare all scenarios,” he said.

“It’s frustrating but at the same time nobody knows who is going to play, so it’s a good thing. We have players to cope with everything. With a long week you can see a lot of things and work on several stuff to prepare for the situation.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be the same situation [when each player goes to AFCON]. Every national team has their ideas about when they want the players. I expect today or maybe tomorrow to have a decision but we are waiting until the last moment to choose the best team.”