Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has revealed that Luke Shaw missed today’s clash against Sunderland because he was injured, while Phil Jones was suffering from illness.
The 20-times English champions managed a 2-0 victory over Sunderland at Old Trafford, courtesy to a brace from Wayne Rooney in the second half of the match. United were without the services of three players. Apart from Shaw and Jones, even Victor Valdes was also absent on the bench.
The former Southampton left-back was suffering with a hamstring injury, while Jones missed because of illness.
“Shaw had a tight hamstring and Jones was ill. I cannot put players who are ill and tired in my line-up. Victor Valdes also has a problem and wasn’t on the bench. I had to make three changes during our final day of preparation,” Van Gaal confirmed.
With the latest win, United move third in the table. One of the challengers for the top four spot, Southampton, suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion away from home.
The Old Trafford club have 50 points from 27 games, leading fourth place Arsenal by two points. However, the north London club have a game in hand and they take on Everton in the Premier League clash at the Emirates on Sunday.
A defeat or a draw for Arsene Wenger’s side against the Merseyside club will see United retain the third spot after the end of the weekend’s fixtures.
Robin van Persie is already out of action for close to two weeks. It should be seen whether Shaw and Jones will be fit enough to face Newcastle United later this midweek.
Follow this weekend’s matches with Soccerlens & INPLAY
Whether you’re following this weekend’s match live in the stadium, watching it in the pub or following it on your phone, one of the best new is INPLAY.
INPLAY is a fantastic new social messaging app with a unique football twist – think WhatsApp for football – that allows fans like you to interact with friends and like-minded supporters (with private chats and open groups) and the option to share images and videos via your phone.
You also get access to the last football stories that is filtered and personalised based on your preferences (favourite team, location, interests) right at your fingertips.
There’s a lot more to the app that’s best experienced rather than explained, so go ahead and click here to download the app for FREE on iPhone or Android.
Join Soccerlens @ INPLAY
Scoreless will be covering this weekend’s games through live blogs on Saturday and Sunday, so you will able to follow all of the weekend’s Premier League games plus the League Cup final from right here on Soccerlens.
Make sure to download and sign up to the INPLAY app and the join the ‘Soccerlens Club’ on the ‘Discover’ tab in the app and get involved with this weekend chat in there. We will have all the stats, news updates and much more for you through INPLAY and here on Soccerlens.
Click here to download the app for FREE on iPhone or Android.
Get started now and don’t forget to launch the app for in-match discussion during this weekend’s games!
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
