Carrick confirms three ruled out as United face injury-hit Tottenham clash

Michael Carrick will be without three first-team players and faces uncertainty over three more as Manchester United prepare to host Tottenham at Old Trafford on Saturday in the Premier League.

Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui both picked up injuries during the international break while representing Denmark and Morocco respectively, adding to a growing casualty list that already included striker Benjamin Sesko, who withdrew from Slovenia duty with a recurrence of his shin problem. Carrick confirmed all three will miss the weekend fixture, with Dorgu expected to be sidelined for “a number of weeks”.

Kobbie Mainoo and Marcus Rashford, who both pulled out of England’s Nations League squad, have returned to some training but face late checks before Saturday. Amad is also a doubt as he continues his recovery from injury, having completed only limited work on the training pitch.

“It’s been a long time since we definitely, since we sat here last. Yeah, a bit of a mixture really through the internationals,” Carrick told reporters. “Patrick came off and looks like he’ll be out for probably a number of weeks. Nous came off and took a knock. He’s not quite right yet, so we’ll have to see how he is. Ben’s a little bit further away with the issue he’s got, so he won’t be ready.”

Carlos Baleba offered a more positive note, with Carrick confirming the midfielder has trained extensively and is improving.

Despite Tottenham sitting bottom of the Premier League table heading into the fixture, Carrick was careful not to underestimate his former club. “I think they’ve played a lot better than that at times, and when you look at the games, they’re a very good team with some very good players,” he said. “Just because of the points, I understand the question, but we’re not going into it expecting anything less than their best version of what we know they’re capable of.”