The latest Man Utd injury news after Joshua Zirkzee was forced off during the 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United.
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has confirmed that Joshua Zirkzee faces a period out of action after being forced off in Sunday afternoon’s 4-1 defeat to Newcastle.
Zirkzee led the line for United at St James’ Park after coming off the subs bench and scoring in Lyon last week. With the score 2-1 to the home side, the striker went down clutching his hamstring.
After receiving treatment on the pitch, the Dutchman was replaced by Rasmus Hojlund, after hobbling off the pitch with the help of two members of United’s medical staff.
The injury comes at the worst possible time for United ahead of their Europa League quarter-final second leg with Lyon on Thursday night. The competition is their last chance of making a success of the current season with United almost certain to record their worst-ever Premier League finish.
Speaking after the defeat, Amorim revealed the extent of Zirkzee’s injury. Speaking to BeIN Sports, he confirmed the Netherlands forward would miss Thursday night, before adding he would be side-lined for a number of weeks when speaking to MUTV.
“We had to make rotation because we are trying to recover in two days from each game,” he said. “But trying to win this game also. Josh, I think he will be out for some games. So, let’s focus on the next one.”
Amorim told reporters he had no regrets in the starting XI he named at Newcastle. He made five changes from the draw with Lyon in an attempt to keep his squad fresh for the return leg.
“No, nothing,” he replied when asked if he regretted his line-up. “[We lost] Because we did mistakes, and they were better. Even if we put a different XI we don’t know the result.
“But we had to make choices, we played three days ago. You can see with Josh, he was fresh but he had a problem, so sometimes we need to make choices and we don’t know the result even with a different XI.
“I was waiting for 60 minutes, more or less, but then with one stop I was getting a little bit, not afraid, but to try to avoid more problems. It is really difficult to look at the best things.
“The best thing is to focus on the next one. Analyse this one, but it is really hard to be here after this result and try to see. Maybe in a few days I will watch the game and try to take that but, in this moment, it is really hard to have any good feeling about the Newcastle game.”
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