MANCHESTER UNITED had more than £500million worth of talent unavailable for their defeat by Fulham.
The Red Devils have been plagued by injuries for much of the campaign with Erik ten Hag’s options often limited.
And just when he started to get players such as Casemiro and Harry Maguire back from injury, the likes of Rasmus Hojlund and Luke Shaw were struck down by injury.
Hojlund had finally discovered his goalscoring touch with seven goals in six games but a muscle injury sidelined him last Saturday.
And with Anthony Martial also absent – as he has been for the majority of the campaign – Ten Hag was forced to call on academy graduate Omari Forson, 19, in attack.
Three academy players started in the 2-1 defeat including Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, with £70million Casemiro the most expensive star to feature.
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That meant United were left with a more expensive absentee line-up than the one they fielded, with the likes of Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez and Jadon Sancho all missing.
In total, United had £519m worth of talent missing from their starting line-up with two of those players – Sancho and Donny van de Beek – out on loan.
Blockbuster summer signing Mount has started just four league games while Martinez and Tyrell Malacia have just seven starts between them, meaning United are down to bare bones at the back.
To compound Ten Hag’s misery Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been unavailable since the Tottenham clash last month, while Maguire and Raphael Varane have also experienced injury woes.
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Ten Hag opted against starting £86m Antony and the flop could leave this summer after failing to make an impact with zero Premier League goals and assists this season.
The Brazilian is one of 14 stars United could get rid of in the summer, potentially giving the club a saving of £1.9m per week in wages.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
