The Red Devils might have to sign a new player to recover their squad depth in midfield.
Donny van de Beek will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury, confirms Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag.
Van de Beek rose to stardom under Ten Hag at Ajax before securing a £40 million transfer to join Man Utd.
The Dutchman hoped to rediscover his spark when his former boss arrived at Old Trafford last summer. But his integration into United’s squad has faced a new stumbling block.
Van de Beek limped off the pitch in his side’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth on January 3. Ten Hag has now confirmed his countryman won’t feature for United again this season.
“It is his knee,” the Man Utd boss told reporters. “On the long term it is looking really good, he will be back for the start of pre-season. But the rest of the season he is out.
“Our thoughts are with him, it is terrible when you are in a season and you get a bad tackle, bad injury, it is always really disappointing and our thoughts, feelings are with the player.
“Our group did that really well and we are now happy his knee, in the long term, is good. In the same moments, there are mixed feelings and disappointment that he is out of this season.
“The players are feeling we are building something good and we want to be part of it and everyone wants to be part of it. That injury he is out so there are two sides of it but the good sides are the long term he is out.”