Baleba faces months on sideline as hamstring blow clouds United's busy December

Manchester United face a significant midfield crisis after Carlos Baleba limped off in tears during the second half of their Europa League win over Roma on Tuesday, with manager Michael Carrick warning the £70m signing could be sidelined for the remainder of the calendar year.

Baleba pulled up in the opening minute of the second half, and United are still awaiting the full extent of the damage. “We don’t know, but it will be a number of weeks,” Carrick said. “It won’t be after the international break. It’ll be a little bit longer than that.”

The 22-year-old will miss Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Aston Villa and is now expected to be absent for the trip to Anfield on 22 November and the Champions League clash with Sporting CP three days after that. United face seven games in December — including a visit to Arsenal on 20 December — and it remains unclear whether Baleba will recover in time to feature in any of them.

The injury compounds a difficult start to life at Old Trafford for the former Brighton midfielder. Baleba missed the beginning of the season with an ankle problem and has managed only five starts since completing his move from the Amex Stadium in the summer.

Carrick is also monitoring Patrick Dorgu, who has been dealing with his own hamstring issues. “Patrick’s done a little bit of training this week,” the United manager said. “So we’ve got to be patient with Pat. He’s had a good period of time now with a couple of hamstrings that we need to manage and be patient with over the next few weeks as well. But he’s slowly getting back with us, so we’ll have to see whether he can be involved at the weekend or not.”

With Baleba now joining the injury list, Carrick’s options in central midfield are stretched heading into one of the most demanding stretches of the season.