United will host Chelsea in an early Premier League game on Thursday, but interim manager Ronnick is facing a serious injury crisis with just 14 healthy players and six of them confirmed to be absent.
Pogba and Luke Shaw are no longer able to compete this season, Fred's calf has yet to heal, and now captain Maguire may also be reimbursed for the early season. In addition, the £73 million winger Sancho fell ill and hung up the exemption card, while centre-forward Cavani planned to resume training on Friday. Not only that, but right-back Wan Bissaka also has injury questions and needs to be checked before the game to determine whether he can compete.
As a result, Lonnick recruited a number of young players from academy, including Tunisian international Hannibal Mederibri, who has been practicing with the first team for 10 million euros, Alejandro Ganganjo of "New C Ronaldo" and Shola Shorettire, who has been practicing with the first team. In addition, once Wan Bissaka is unable to participate, the 19-year-old former Real Madrid youth left-back Alvaro Fernandez also has the opportunity to enter the tournament squad as a substitute for the full-back.
When Lonnick disclosed the team's injury, he revealed that Maguire suffered from a knee injury, while Sancho was inflamed with tonsils and that their position could be replaced by a youngster. "It's possible for young players to play," Lonnick said in a pre-match press conference, "we will have a lot of players out tomorrow and one or two players who have questions, such as Wanbisaka, and the team will have to wait until tomorrow to see if he can play." We used Hannibal against Liverpool, so it's a scheme, but we have to be fair to the youngsters and let them play at the right time. They should have the opportunity to perform well, not just arrange for them to play in a game, the timing needs to be right."
The Manchester United boss added: "Unfortunately Fred is not back yet, he tried his training yesterday, but after the practice I had a detailed conversation with him and he said he was not fully recovered, not 100% conditioned. For a player like Fred, he always tries his best, and with a muscle injury, it doesn't make sense for him to play too early, but it's easy to get injured again, so I don't want to do that."
Referring to Maguire's injury, Lonnick said: "Maguire can't play tomorrow, he has some problems with his knees, not a big problem, just a minor injury, but yesterday and today there was no training." However, the British media revealed that Maguire's knee injury is not light, and the Daily Mail revealed that he may be absent for several weeks and miss the remaining 4 Premier League games of Manchester United.
As a result, United also recruited young 19-year-old centre-back Will Fish to prepare for the first team. Fish made his debut against Wolves in the final premier league round last season, but was not reused for being loaned out to Stockport this season, playing just two games in the first half of the season and playing just 84 minutes before returning to Manchester United.
"Obviously, plus Paul (Pogba), Fred, Edinson (Cavani) and Luke Shaw are injured, and Sancho is sick, he got tonsillitis yesterday and can't train today and can't play tomorrow," Lonnick said. So we can only choose the best squad among the existing players as much as possible, and it looks like there are only 14 players in the first team, so there may be three or four young players who will be part of the team."