Harry Maguire is set to miss the FA Cup final clash on Saturday – as he faces a race against time to be fit for England’s Euro 2024 campaign.
The last time Maguire featured for Manchester United was in a 1-1 stalemate with Burnley on April 27, and he hasn’t managed to shake off a muscle injury in time for the Wembley face-off against Manchester City.
The 31-year-old defender now faces a race against time to return to fitness ahead of Euro 2024, having been named in Gareth Southgate’s provisional 33-man training squad on Tuesday – although it’s understood at the moment the Three Lions are optimistic he will still make the trimmed 26-man squad travelling to Germany next month.
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United gaffer Erik ten Hag is feeling the sting of losing Maguire but has been handed a boost with Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane returning from injuries. Varane is gearing up for his swansong appearance before he bids adieu to the club.
“Harry Maguire is unavailable,” Ten Hag confirmed. “He didn’t heal as expected. Tomorrow is final training and then we make final decisions, but the way I see it now it looks good,” reports the Mirror.
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Ten Hag also touched on Marcus Rashford’s reaction to being snubbed by England for the Euro 2024 squad, despite netting only eight goals. “He looks good,” Ten Hag observed. “That is a career ups and downs, a down can also give you fuel and that is what I see in training.”
“He will be highly motivated, so speak with your feet. He’s highly intelligent, he’s had a big career and I’m sure he will get over this and get more goals.”
With the FA Cup final on the horizon, Ten Hag is laser-focused: “Every game I want to win and I just focus on this game as I do for every game, I know it’s an important game as it’s about a trophy. An FA Cup final is a big event and we are there. We have an opportunity, we have to go for it and we will go for it.”
(Image: Getty Images)
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“We have to believe, as we did last season, as we have done often against good opponents, if we play our best football and I expect that again on Saturday.”
When questioned about his future, Ten Hag responded: “I have nothing to say. I’m just focusing on the job I have to do and that is first win the game on Saturday and then keep going with the project.”
“I came here to win trophies and Saturday is the next opportunity. After every season you review it and we will see where we are in the project.”
“There are things we have to change, we spoke lately about it, but there are some very good things, players coming up, values coming up and on Saturday we have a big opportunity to win the next trophy.”