Shaw and Mainoo join four absentees as United travel to Atletico with depleted squad

Manchester United will face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League without six first-team players, head coach Michael Carrick confirmed at a press conference in the Spanish capital, with Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo the latest additions to an already stretched injury list.

Shaw was substituted in the sixth minute of second-half added time during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. Mainoo completed the match but did not train on Monday morning, and neither player made the trip to Madrid. “They’ve not travelled, they both picked up issues in the game on Saturday, and we were working through that, to see what that looks like,” Carrick said. “At the moment, they are not ready for the game tomorrow.”

The pair join Benjamin Sesko, Noussair Mazraoui, Patrick Dorgu and Manuel Ugarte on the sidelines. Dorgu and Mazraoui were already ruled out after sustaining injuries on international duty with Denmark and Morocco respectively. Carrick had indicated before the Spurs fixture that Dorgu “looks like he will be out for a number of weeks”, while Mazraoui “took a knock” and was described as “not quite right”.

Sesko is dealing with a recurrence in the same area as a previous shin problem. “It’s a similar area, but it’s not the exact same thing again,” Carrick said. “We’re still working through it a little bit to see how long the issue will be. He recovered really well from the initial one, but sometimes things get thrown up and the body does certain things.”

Ugarte continues his rehabilitation from knee surgery at Carrington and did not travel with the squad.

Despite the mounting absences, Carrick pushed back on suggestions that United are short of options. “We’re not light on numbers, no. Of course, we’ve got a couple of issues with some players missing out, but we’re definitely not light on numbers.”

There were positive signs elsewhere in the squad. Amad returned to action against Spurs, Matthijs de Ligt has made the journey to Madrid after a lengthy spell out, and goalkeeper Tom Heaton is back in training. Academy defender Dan Armer also travelled with the group. “It’s good for Dan to be part of it and for younger players to sample it,” Carrick said. On De Ligt, he added: “He’s had a long journey, so we’re delighted to have him back.”

Atletico Madrid, by contrast, appear to have a clean bill of health ahead of the tie.