Revealed: The remarkable stat about how many games Bruno Fernandes has missed through injury

Manchester United could take some positives from their 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa but there was glaring ramification aside from the result.

During the latter stages of the first half at Villa Park, United captain Bruno Fernandes pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury.

He played the remainder of that half but did not reappear after the interval and was replaced at half-time by Lisandro Martinez .

And speaking about his playmaker's injury, United manager Ruben Amorim said his playmaker is set for a spell on the sidelines.

'It was a soft tissue injury so he will miss some games for sure,' Amorim conceded during his post-match interview.

'You can never control these things. He is a guy who is always fit so he can recover quite well.'

Bruno Fernandes is set for a spell on the sidelines after suffering an injury on Sunday

The Manchester United captain suffered the injury in the first half of their 2-1 loss at Aston Villa

The 31-year-old has rarely missed games for United since making his debut in February 2020

It is unclear how long Fernandes will be out for but the 31-year-old's absence from the Red Devils line-up has been a rarity since making his debut on February 1, 2020.

In fact it's so rare that it's almost hard to believe.

Manchester United host Newcastle on Boxing Day but Fernandes' absence will just be the fourth time he has missed a game due to injury or illness.

He missed one game with the flu in March of 2022 and two games because of a knee injury in May 2024.

Breaking it down further, Fernandes really is United's metronome.

In 292 matches in all competitions with Fernandes starting, United boast a 51.7 per cent win ratio and 45.2 per cent without.

The win percentage discrepancy is even bigger when you focus on the Premier League solely.

In the 208 games the playmaker has played in the English top-flight United have a 48.6 win percentage, without him it drops off to an alarming 29.4 per cent.

The impact of losing Fernandes has dawned on team-mate Diogo Dalot who described it as a 'massive' blow.

'It's massive. We don't know how bad it is but for him to come off, we know how tough he is,' Dalot said after the Aston Villa loss. 'Hopefully it's not too bad and we keep with him for the next games.

'This is the time that opportunities come for other players and the time you step up and show you deserve to be in the team and play more minutes.

'I think that's how the players who get opportunities should look at it. We are Manchester United and we have to find a way to win.'

The last sentence has been hard enough with Fernandes in the side as of late, so they will need to be at their very best for Boxing Day's clash against Newcastle and beyond while their captain gets on the mend.