Manchester United suffer a double injury blow during Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Arsenal, with Rasmus Hojlund and Leny Yoro forced off in the first half.
Manchester United suffered a double injury blow during Saturday night’s pre-season friendly against Arsenal, with Rasmus Hojlund and Leny Yoro both being forced off the field.
Hojlund was making his first appearance of the summer, having missed the team’s first two friendlies against Rosenborg and Rangers due to his involvement for Denmark at Euro 2024.
The striker was on the scoresheet in the 10th minute of the clash with Arsenal, as he made the perfect start to pre-season, but the team’s number nine was forced off in the 16th minute with an apparent hamstring issue.
Yoro, meanwhile, was making his second appearance for the club since arriving from Lille, with the 18-year-old starting in the middle of the defence against Harry Maguire.
However, the Frenchman was substituted 10 minutes before the half-time interval after appearing to injure his ankle, and he was in discomfort as he walked around the pitch.
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Hojlund, Yoro suffered injuries against Arsenal
Head coach Erik ten Hag has said that the pair will now be assessed to determine the seriousness of the damage.
“Of course it is too short [to know about their injuries] and we have to wait over 24 hours, then we will hopefully know more,” the Man United head coach told reporters after the 2-1 loss to Arsenal.
“We were careful especially with Leny [Yoro] as he only did 50% of the [training] sessions. He has to come up but let’s be positive and see what comes out.”
Gabriel Jesus cancelled out Hojlund’s opener to leave the two teams level at 1-1 in the 26th minute, although the Brazilian appeared to be offside, before Gabriel Martinelli won it for the Gunners in the 81st minute.
The match did end on a positive note for Man United, though, as they won the penalty shootout, which was for entertainment value, 4-3 against Mikel Arteta‘s side.
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Ten Hag takes positives from second defeat in three matches
“I think [the game] was a very good level for the third week of pre-season, from both sides, but in the first half I thought we were the better team,” Ten Hag added.
“We scored a very good goal, a very good ball in behind from [Marcus] Rashford and then [Rasmus] Hojlund with a very good move and a finish, I was very pleased. We also created some more good chances and we then conceded the goal which was offside.
“It is important, as we know with all the cup competitions we are in. Penalties can be important, I think Andre [Onana] made two good saves, so it is therefore important to always have a goalkeeper who is good in penalty shootouts. He proved it once again and I think the penalties, except one, they were all good.
“It is a short slot and we are there [in San Diego] quickly, so we have to prepare the team, we must be ready and of course we have to recover from this and then go again [on Thursday].”
Man United will round off their US Tour with matches against Real Betis and Liverpool before heading back to England to prepare for the Community Shield with Manchester City on August 10.
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