ERIK TEN HAG has been forced to turn to a rookie youth centre-back as part of the Manchester United squad for tomorrow’s FA Cup semi-final.
The Red Devils have been hit with an injury crisis ahead of their Wembley bout against Coventry and have called youngster Louis Jackson up to the squad as a result.
Manchester Evening News journalist Samuel Luckhurst revealed that the 18-year-old has travelled with the squad ahead of the cup clash.
Jackson has never made a senior appearance, but has been an important player for the Red Devils’ U18s and U21s sides this season.
The defender has made 15 appearances for the U18s and has played a further six games for the U21s in Premier League 2, the Prem’s development league.
Jackson has been called upon by Ten Hag as a result of major injury problem for the Manchester giants.
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Harry Maguire is the only fit senior centre-back available for the club with Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane, Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans all ruled out with injury.
Ten Hag has turned to 19-year-old starlet Willy Kambwala in recent weeks, but the French youth prospect hasn’t travelled with the squad either after suffering an injury himself.
Ten Hag won’t necessarily be forced to start Jackson as a result with the Dutch gaffer reportedly exploring emergency alternatives from within his squad.
It’s said that Dutch manager has been experimenting with Casemiro as a centre-back alongside Maguire in training.
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United were handed even more injury blows before tomorrow’s clash with Mason Mount and Sofyan Amrabat also unavailable.
The new injuries mean that Man Utd have been hit with 60 separate cases of injury or illness this season alone.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
