Manchester United's season has gone from bad to worse after they suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of FC Midtjylland in the first leg of the Europa League last 32 clash on Thursday. Even before the start of the match, they suffered a setback after goalkeeper David de Gea picked up an injury while he was warming up before the start of the match.
The Spain international was included in the starting lineup, but Louis van Gaal was forced to make changes as Sergio Romero, who was initially supposed to be on the bench started against the Danish champions.
De Gea will undergo a scan on Friday for his injury and the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager admitted that he was surprised by the former Atletico Madrid stopper's latest injury blow.
"It happened in the warm up. We have to wait and see for the scan tomorrow, then maybe we can say more but it was a big surprise," Van Gaal told United's official website.
Before the Europa League clash, the Dutchman confirmed captain Wayne Rooney has suffered a knee injury and will United's trip to Denmark. The England international is expected to spend the next two months on the sidelines, according to the Guardian.
In addition to this, left-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson also missed the clash due to illness. United were without 13 first team players and with De Gea now joining that list, it has only made Van Gaal's situation even worse at Old Trafford.
"I think it is the law of Murphy, when you have a list of 13 injured players and a few minutes before the game we can add another player to the list. Then it is difficult to cope with such a list of injured players," United manager explained.
The current list of injured players includes Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Borthwick-Jackson, Guillermo Varela, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young, Marouane Fellaini, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Matteo Darmian, Adnan Januzaj, along with De Gea and Rooney.
The return leg against Midtjylland will take place at Old Trafford next Thursday and Van Gaal remains hopeful his side can qualify for the next stage of the competition.
