Manchester United centre-back Eric Bailly will be out for four to five months after he was injured against Tottenham in a pre-season match.
United head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said after the 1-0 friendly victory over Kristiansund on Tuesday that Bailly had undergone knee surgery after the injury he sustained against Spurs.
“Eric has had an operation and will be out for four to five months,” Solskjaer said. “Hopefully we’ll have him back around Christmas time.
“It was positive news from the surgeon, he had the operation this morning. He was positive it was all repaired and that he’ll be fine.”
Bailly was brought on at half-time in Thursday’s ICC game, but pulled up with the knee problem just nine minutes after coming on as a substitute he tried to prevent Heung-Min Son from getting a goal.
The 25-year-old Ivorian left Shanghai’s Hongkou stadium on crutches in a knee brace after the 2-1 win.
Bailly had only recently returned from a medial ligament injury which he suffered against Chelsea in April. He was forced to miss the Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Ivory Coast due to the issue.
After missing United’s opening pre-season match against Perth Glory in Singapore, Eric Bailly featured in their next two games against Leeds and Inter.
Bailly has been plagued by injury during his time at Old Trafford and only managed eight Premier League starts last campaign.
However, Maguire remains the number one target for the Red devils and United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward remains in talks with Leicester about a deal, after Solskjaer made it clear he wanted the England international as soon as possible.
