Shaw and Mainoo doubts as United travel to Atletico with five players absent

Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo are doubts for Manchester United’s Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday after both missed the club’s Monday morning training session at Carrington, with a decision on their travel expected later in the day.

Head coach Michael Carrick is already without three confirmed absentees. Benjamin Sesko, Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui all sat out the session and look set to miss the trip to the Spanish capital.

Sesko is nursing a shin problem — in a similar area to the injury that ruled him out of the final three games of last season and all of pre-season. Carrick has acknowledged the timeline remains uncertain. “It’s a similar area, but it’s not the exact same thing again,” the United head coach said. “We’re still working through it a little bit to see how long the issue will be. We’re hoping it will be soon, obviously, but at this moment it’s still not quite clear.”

Dorgu picked up a suspected hamstring injury while on international duty with Denmark and is expected to be sidelined for several weeks. Mazraoui, meanwhile, withdrew from Morocco’s squad last month after sustaining a knock against Lesotho and was not fit enough to feature against Tottenham at the weekend, with his involvement against Atletico now looking unlikely.

There was more cautious optimism around Matthijs de Ligt, who did take part in Monday’s session as he continues his return from back surgery. The Dutch defender was present at Old Trafford for the Tottenham game but was not named in the matchday squad, and United are managing his workload carefully as he approaches full fitness. Whether he travels with the group remains unclear.

Atletico Madrid arrive at this fixture in strong form, sitting second in La Liga and having won four consecutive games, including a victory over city rivals Real Madrid.

United’s 23-man training group included goalkeepers Lammens, Heaton and Mee; defenders Maguire, De Ligt, Amass, Armer, Dalot, Martinez, Yoro and Heaven; midfielders Mount, J. Fletcher, Tielemans, Baleba, Santos and Fernandes; and forwards Lacey, Zirkzee, Mbeumo, Rashford, Cunha and Amad.