Why Leny Yoro and Harry Maguire are not playing for Man Utd against Chelsea | Football

Manchester United are without Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Leny Yoro for their Premier League clash against Chelsea tonight.

Michael Carrick has been handed a full-blown crisis at the back this week and is without for of his five centre-halves in west London.

Maguire missed last Monday’s defeat at home to Leeds as a result of the red card he received against Bournemouth in March for pulling down Evanilson in the box.

The England international was handed an additional one-game ban this week after being charged with improper conduct by the FA for remarks made to fourth official Matt Donohue as he left the pitch.

Martinez is also suspended tonight. The Argentina international saw red against Leeds for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair, deemed violent conduct which earned him a three-match ban.

In addition to tonight’s game, he will also miss crucial home games against Brentford and Liverpool.

United’s woes were compounded on Friday when it emerged Leny Yoro did not travel with the squad down to the capital.

Speaking before kick-off against Chelsea, Carrick said of Yoro’s injury: ‘Hopefully it’s only small but he’s obviously not ready for tonight.

‘It’s part of football. We’ve got a pretty good squad, in terms of injuries really. There’s Leny, there’s Matthijs [De Ligt], who’s out for a bit longer, and there’s Patrick [Dorgu] who is out.

‘It’s the two suspensions so all of a sudden there’s less options at centre-back. But we can adapt and we can make the most of it. It’s an important game tonight so we’ll be ready for that.’

It leaves Ayden Heaven as United’s only fit centre-half tonight.

Matthijs de Ligt remains absent with a back injury that has kept him on the sidelines for over five months.

The Dutchman last played for the club against Crystal Palace at the end of November with no clear timeline on when he will be back in contention.

Carrick blasted the decision to send off Martinez and Monday night and was not impressed with news of Maguire’s additional ban when he spoke to the media on Friday.

 ‘Massively disappointed, of course,’ Carrick said.

‘I think quite a few reasons to be disappointed in a big way over those types of situations over the last three weeks.

‘But, obviously, now we’ve got to move on, the decisions have been made, it’s something that we’re really disappointed with in many ways, but that’s it now. We’ve got to move on and we will do.’

United sit in third place ahead of kick-off, seven clear of Chelsea in sixth.

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