Cavani facing injury battle before Brighton
Edinson Cavani is battling to be fit for selection to play for Manchester United against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford on Tuesday night in the Premier League.
Our Uruguayan striker was given until just hours before Saturday's lunchtime match against Southampton to respond to treatment and overcome a groin problem.
But Cavani was not ready to feature and manager Ralf Rangnick had to scrub the 34-year-old from his plans to face the Saints in the 1-1 draw.
Rangnick's post-match press conference
Ralf answers the media's questions on psychology, half-time team talks, Ronaldo and more after the Southampton draw...
Edinson had played at Burnley last Tuesday but was replaced after 68 minutes by Cristiano Ronaldo, however, he injured his groin in Friday’s training session.
Asked in the post-match press conference if Cavani would make the Brighton game, Rangnick told the media, “I don’t know to be honest.
“I thought and was told after training yesterday that he would be available for today [Southampton] but, after training, the doctor came to see me and then I spoke to Edi and I told them let’s wait until this morning before the game and see if treatment can make things any better.
“But then I spoke to him today before we had breakfast and he said to me that the pain is too big and he cannot play.”
Cavani’s KO meant a return to the starting XI for Ronaldo after beginning on the bench at Turf Moor. The Portugal international was unable to get on the scoresheet for the first time this year, although he did have an effort ruled out.
“He would have wished to score, I would have wished him to score, the whole team would have wished him to score,” Ralf said.
“I think today, he had his good chances. Probably one of the best chances in the game was when he rounded the goalkeeper. He also had good moments in the second half.
“Again it is not only Cristiano, as a team we create enough chances. I would be more worried if we only had one or two chances in a game.
“Our expected goal-ratio was 2.75 but we only scored one. If we are not able to keep a clean sheet when we are 1-0 or 2-0 up, then it is important to score a second or third goal.
“Right now this is one of our two major points criticism that we are just not effective enough, if you compare the amount of chances we create and the amount of goals we are able to score.”