Erik ten Hag reveals Man Utd defender played through injury against Bournemouth

Erik ten Hag revealed Harry Maguire played through an injury during Manchester United's 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday night.

The Red Devils were once again without a number of key players and fell behind twice at the Vitality Stadium. However, two strikes from Bruno Fernandes helped Ten Hag's side leave the south coast with a point for their efforts.

Maguire partnered youngster Willy Kambwala in central defence, with Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans all missing due to injuries. Fellow defenders Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia also remain out of contention.

While Ten Hag did criticise his players for the performance in the draw, he picked out Maguire for some praise having overcome a knock earlier.

"We have a team that is resilient, has character, we want to win. Twice we fought back from losing positions," he told Sky Sports. "Second half was better. We took more responsibility and we closed up the sides.

"That also has to do with in the middle Harry Maguire was struggling in the first half, and you see we don't have many options at centre-half any more. But in the second half his leadership and guidance helped us to be more closed.

"We have used the same back line twice and these players gave everything, their maximum."

He later said in his post-match press conference: "One thing was Harry Maguire had an issue in the first half and for us he overcame [it].

"During the game, he recovered from it and you see in the second half, he was up there and then he can express his leadership, he can express his defending qualities and his [ability] on the ball. 

"We needed that in this back four, we lost some balls in areas we shouldn’t lose them. For instance, the first goal, the setup was good, but in that area, you should never lose the ball."

Maguire had come close to leaving Old Trafford to join West Ham in last year's summer transfer window but injuries elsewhere have seen the England international start 16 Premier League games for Man Utd so far this season.

READ THE LATEST MAN UTD NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP