Erik ten Hag concedes injuries continue to hold Man Utd back

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has conceded that his team are being "held back" by ongoing injuries that continue to affect the squad.

Prior to beating Brentford in an improved performance last weekend, United had taken only eight points from a possible 21 in their opening seven Premier League fixtures to make it the club's worst start to a league campaign since 1989/90.

Having drawn a third successive Europa League game on Thursday night, Ten Hag will welcome Bruno Fernandes back after suspension for the weekend trip to West Ham United. Rasmus Hojlund, whose game time has been carefully managed, should also return to the lineup.

Hojlund and Fernandes combined well with Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford against Brentford as United scored in a Premier League game for the first time in over a month. But the squad still isn't injury free, with seven players sidelined against the Hammers.

"That holds us back in our levels and also in our position in the league, because when you don't have the players available, you can't line up the best team and that is what's holding us back in this moment," Ten Hag lamented as he spoke to reporters.

"We need more players often available, and then we have to work altogether on this point. That is the players, the coaching staff, all the other staff.

"We have to do better and to get more available players because we know when we have them, we are a really tough team to play, and when we have them, we can be really, really successful. And that is what we have shown over the last couple of months."

Due to the travel commitments surrounding this current run of fixtures, United remained in Turkey on Thursday night and trained locally on Friday morning. Instead of returning to Manchester, the plan was made to head straight to London ahead of Sunday's game at the London Stadium.

Jonny Evans, having suffered a knock against Brentford and missed the trip to Istanbul, is the only player who may be ready to rejoin the squad in the capital.

Leny Yoro and Luke Shaw have been training individually, while Tyrell Malacia has resumed group training but isn't yet ready to play after more than a year out of action. Mason Mount hasn't played since a head injury against Tottenham last month, with Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire perhaps out until November and Antony the latest to suffer an injury when he was stretchered off this week.

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