(Manchester United News)
Louis van Gaal has confirmed that Manchester United will be without Michael Carrick, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones and Daley Blind for Saturday’s Barclays Premier League blockbuster with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Carrick picked up an injury in the second half of last Sunday’s 4-2 win over Manchester City and has not recovered in time to face Jose Mourinho’s leaders in West London. However, Luke Shaw is fit and available for selection for the first time since appearing in last month's FA Cup sixth-round defeat to Arsenal, when he was replaced at half-time.
"Carrick is injured, he cannot play," the boss told MUTV at the Aon Training Complex. "But not only Michael Carrick - Daley Blind, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo cannot play. It cannot be worse because it's two players in the left central defensive positions, and Jonny Evans is still suspended. Blind and Carrick play in the holding position in midfield, so I have to change my line-up a lot against Chelsea."
Asked to explain how Rojo, Jones and Blind got injured, van Gaal said: "They are all from the game against Manchester City. Blind has played on because he always wants to play on, but the tackle from [Vincent] Kompany was of course the reason.
"Jones, I took him off the pitch already because he injured himself in the second half. Rojo, he was complaining after the match, and Carrick was also off. So it's not surprising, but we had a big hope that Blind and Jones could reach this game but they could not."
The boss also hinted that Robin van Persie may feature in some capacity: "Shaw has trained for a lot of weeks already so he can play. Van Persie is another story. This is the first week he's trained with the first team, but maybe we have to think about him."
