The latest on Harry Maguire's ankle injury
By Tom Gott
Harry Maguire is expected to miss the Europa League final with an ankle injury sustained in Man Utd's 3-1 win at Aston Villa earlier in May.
Maguire went down after a collision with Anwar El Ghazi and immediately looked in real discomfort. After a few minutes of treatment, he hobbled back on to the pitch and attempted to play on, only to sit himself down on the turf just seconds later and request a substitution - the first time Maguire has not completed 90 minutes for United in the Premier League.
As noted by Henry Winter, Maguire was later seen walking to United's team bus with his foot in a support boot, casting doubt over whether he will feature in United's run-in and the Europa League final on May 26.
Maguire was quickly sent for a scan on the injury, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has since confirmed that the results suggest the centre-back's domestic season could be over.
“The good news was it wasn’t broken,“ Solskjaer said (via the club's official website). ”There was no fracture, but a ligament injury, of course, is serious as well. I don’t think he’ll play in the league again before [the end of the season]. We’ll do everything we can to get him ready for the final.
“You always try to look after players long term. If he’s fit, he’ll play for us, if he’s not he won’t. As I said, we’re hopeful that he’s ready. If he’s ready for us, he’ll probably be ready for the Euros."
However, after initially being ruled out for the rest of Man Utd's Premier League campaign, Solskjaer expects Maguire to miss the Europa League final with Villarreal next Wednesday, too.
"He's walking but it's a long way from walking to running," Solskjaer said, via the Daily Mail. "To be honest I don't think we'll see him in Gdansk, no, but I'm going to give him until Tuesday night and the last training session to be out there. Steadily but surely he's improving – but ligaments take time to heal.
"He's a very important person in the dressing-room and a leader. Before fans came back in you heard him from the stands. He wants the team to do well, he's organising from the stands. It's easy because it's been so quiet. He'll make sure everyone's ready for the final."