Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted he is unlikely to be able to play Harry Maguire in all of the upcoming fixtures.
The skipper has not missed a minute of league action since joining the Reds from Leicester City and is on course to beat the club's record for outfield players in the division, held by Gary Pallister, if he plays the 90 minutes at Aston Villa on Sunday.
However, with meetings against his former club Leicester and Liverpool following hot on the heels of the Villa Park clash, the boss feels he will be left with little choice but to rotate throughout his team.
“Harry Maguire, he’s played every minute for us in the Premier League since he came,”said the manager. “I don’t think that’s possible now. That’s another stat that he could have been very, very proud of but I can’t really see that happening now.”
“I feel for my players, I feel for the team, I feel for them. Having had this fantastic season, got to a final, I’m sat here answering these questions and not about the run-in. They’ve worked their socks off, they’ve been absolutely brilliant and I’m just very, very happy for them that we’ve got to this place.
“We just have to do the best we can, it’s another challenge for us and please, you can see I’m not happy with it, I’m not sulking, it’s one of them things that I know my players will take head-on and we as a group will be stronger for it when we come out of it.“I just keep my fingers crossed that no one will get injured. That’s going to be my biggest concern, injuries.”
United tackle Villa at the weekend before a day off ahead of the visit of Leicester to Old Trafford.
The rearranged encounter with Liverpool has been moved to next Thursday, giving the boss a real selection headache for the hectic spell of three games in five days.
Eric Bailly came in at Roma to play alongside Maguire, with Victor Lindelof rested, while Axel Tuanzebe is another option to come into the middle of defence.