Ralf Rangnick has confirmed that Cristiano Ronaldo has missed Manchester United’s game with Aston Villa due to a hip injury.
Ronaldo was absent for United’s 1-0 victory over Villa in the FA Cup third round on Monday but Rangnick had expected the player to return for Saturday’s Premier League game.
But, Ronaldo was unable to take part in Friday’s session and has now been left out of the team, with Rangnick hopeful that he will be able to return for the match against Brentford next Wednesday.
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When asked why Ronaldo misses the game against Villa, Rangnick told Sky Sports: ‘For the same reason he missed the cup game.
‘Yesterday [Friday] before training he still had problems with his hip flexor and we then decided not to train him.
‘Then after training I had another conversation with him and we then decided that it doesn’t make sense, if he is still having problems with his hip flexor, to take him on the journey here and then hopefully he can play on Wednesday.’
Marcus Rashford was also left out of the team after suffering a dead leg in training on Thursday.
‘Marcus had, how you call it, a dead leg in training the day before yesterday and it got worse overnight,’ Rangnick said.
‘And again he couldn’t train yesterday. I spoke with him before the training session and we were waiting until the evening to see if the treatment makes it any better but it didn’t, so again we decided not to take him with us.’
Rangnick also explained why Maguire has only been named as a substitute.
‘He was out for two weeks,’ said the United manager. ‘Now he doesn’t have any problems anymore, but he had problems for two weeks and I then decided to keep the two centre-backs who played in the cup game in the team.
‘We have the next couple of games coming up on Wednesday and next Saturday, and today I decided to play with the same centre-backs that we played in the cup.’
