Manchester United will be without Benjamin Sesko for their Premier League game against Everton on Monday night. Sesko limped out of United’s dramatic draw against Tottenham before the international break and Ruben Amorim gave an update on the striker in his pre-match press conference
The £74million summer signing from RB Leipzig sat out of international duty with Slovenia – much to his national team manager’s displeasure – and was also absent from United training on Friday morning.
Asked if the young striker would be unavailable during AFCON – when fellow forward Bryan Mbeumo will be absent – Amorim added: “It’s going to be more or less the same time – I don’t want to say for sure but when they are going to the camp I expect to have Ben back.”
Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo both also missed training at Carrington on Friday. Amorim said Maguire is “not ready” to feature on Monday, but Mainoo is expected to train on Saturday, with a view of featuring against the Toffees.
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“Maguire is not ready,” Amorim said. “Kobbie didn’t train today but I think we could see Kobbie tomorrow so we’ll see.” He added: “There is an opportunity for other players like the under-21s. We will see it is not ideal. They are so important in our team.”
Amorim also said that Lisandro Martinez is still unavailable, although the defender is “getting close” to making his long-awaited return. United have been without the centre-back since January, when he suffered a serious knee injury, but the Argentina international is now back in training.
Sesko has two goals and one assist in 12 matches for United so far. His absence means that Amorim will have to adapt his system, possibly using Matheus Cunha as a false No.9, with Amad Diallo and Mbeumo on the wings. United are seventh in the Premier League table, level on 18 points with four other sides after a run of five games unbeaten.
Amorim has previously hinted that United may be forced into action in the January transfer window, with Mbeumo heading off to represent Cameroon at AFCON. “Of course, we are going to have a problem there (AFCON), but we already knew that,” he said.
“We knew that we would have a lot of players who are not going to play because it’s one game a week, so we knew that trying to manage that situation was going to be hard. Let’s see when the window is open, if we can improve the team, and try to repair something that happened. Until then we have to take the chance. We’ll see.”
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