Journalist Pete O’Rourke has described an injury to Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez as a “huge blow”.
How long is Martinez out for?
Martinez picked up a serious injury in the first leg of the club’s Europa League clash with Sevilla earlier this month in what was his 45th appearance of the season. The Argentina centre-back suffered a fractured metatarsal and has since undergone surgery.
However, despite the surgery being a success, Erik ten Hag will not be able to call upon the 25-year-old for the rest of the season, with Martinez already missing games against Nottingham Forest and the return leg against Sevilla.
Talking to GiveMeSport in a story shared shortly prior to the Red Devils’ Europa League exit to Sevilla*, O’Rourke described Martinez’s absence as a “huge blow” and “big” to lose the defender at this stage of the campaign:
"It's a huge blow. At this stage of the season, you want your best players fit and available for these crucial games. Martínez has had a really good debut season at Old Trafford as well. He's become a regular under Erik ten Hag and obviously missing him now for the key stage of the season, with United battling for the top four and trying to win the FA Cup (and also the Europa League*), it's a blow for them and Erik ten Hag.
"He's seen his defence slowly hit by a number of injuries with Raphael Varane also injured, so it's going to be a big blow to lose Martínez. You don't want to lose your best players at this stage of the season, but it'll be up to the rest of the squad now to step up and fill in."
We’ve now seen why…
Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof have come in for Martinez and Raphael Varane and helped United to a Premier League win and clean sheet last weekend.
However, Maguire was slammed by Samuel Luckhurst for his display at Forest and the England international went on to make a huge error on Thursday which led to Sevilla’s opener.
Maguire and Lindelof were part of the side that fell to a 3-0 defeat and a quarter-final exit in Spain, but at the minute, they are Ten Hag’s only available options, so could be in line to start once again against Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday.
However, another option for Ten Hag could be to use left-back Luke Shaw at centre-back, something which he has done on six occasions this season, but we saw on Thursday how important Martinez and Varane have been.
