Harry Maguire, Benjamin Sesko and Mason Mount have been left out of Manchester United’s pre-season friendly against Leeds United on Wednesday night.
Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven start in central defence for United at Croke Park in Dublin, while Michael Carrick has left Maguire out of his squad completely.
Maguire took part in full training on Tuesday and is not suffering from an injury as Carrick is keen to spread pre-season minutes to every member of his squad.
Elsewhere, Mason Mount is ruled out after he was forced off with a foot injury against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on Saturday, while Sesko is yet to make an appearance in pre-season as he continues to recover from a shin injury.
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Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez reported back to pre-season training with United on Monday but tonight’s friendly against Leeds comes too soon for the trio.
Carrick has confirmed that Rashford, Mainoo and Martinez are in line to feature for United’s final pre-season friendly against AC Milan in Wroclaw on Saturday.
Man Utd vs Leeds confirmed line-ups
Man Utd: Lammens; Dalot (c), Yoro, Heaven, Amass; Santos, T. Fletcher; Amad, Zirkzee, Dorgu; Mbeumo.
Subs: Heath, Honor, Mee, Armer, Shaw, Collyer, Fernandes, J. Fletcher, Tielemans, Cunha, Gabriel, Lacey, Thompson.
Leeds United: Trafford; Muharemovic, Bijol, Bornauw; Bogle, Tanaka, Longstaff, James; Aaronson, Chadwick; Nmecha.
Subs: Cairns, Mahady, Justin, Lienou, Rodon, Ampadu, Cresswell, Stach, Calvert-Lewin, Gnonto, Mills, Okafor, Piroe, Wilson.
Speaking to MUTV before kick-off, Carrick stressed the importance of sharing the pre-season minutes in his squad with some players further ahead than those who only recently returned from the World Cup.
‘We’ve got two or three different groups within our stage, the stages that the lads have been at in terms of when they’ve been back with us, how much training they’ve had, so we’re trying to get the balance right with that,’ Carrick said.
‘Giving younger players a chance as well, in a game and an occasion like this which feels, I have to say, it’s great to be here, feeling the energy of the stadium, I think that’s really good for the younger players to sample that tonight for their learning and to feel what it feels to play like for Manchester United in a game like this.
‘In terms of the ones who have just come back, some boys are not quite ready, Marcus, Licha [Martinez], Kobbie, they only came back a couple of days ago so we’ll save them until the weekend.
‘We’ve trained hard, the boys came in, Marcus, Lucha and Kobbie came in on Monday, they’ve had two or three sessions, they trained this morning really hard.
‘Recovery day tomorrow for everybody as a group. It’s important that we’ve got two or different stages but when we’re together as a group we stay like that so we’ll all recover tomorrow, train Friday and prepare for the game on Saturday, and again get the minutes and the balance right and then look strong going into next week.’
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