On Tuesday, Chelsea had to announce the good news that potential new goalscorer Christopher Nkunku will be absent for a long time due to knee surgery. A day later, Manchester United had a similar experience.
The English record champions announced that Rasmus Höjlund, who – like Nkunku with the Blues – is to help fix the offensive problems at Old Trafford in the new season, “probably has to pause for several weeks”. The reason is a “slight injury” that the Danish international suffered at ex-club Atalanta Bergamo during the summer preparations.
As a result, Höjlund did not play in the friendlies against RC Lens (3-1) and Athletic Bilbao (1-1) at the weekend, but made his debut in the duel with the French runners-up on Saturday. With his fee of around 75 million euros alone, the ManUnited attachment has high expectations of the 20-year-old.
Ten Hag still sees “good progress” at Höjlund
“We don’t expect him to be 100 percent fit in the short term,” the Red Devils quoted coach Erik ten Hag’s statements about Höjlund on Tuesday on Sky Sports. “So we have to wait a little longer. It’s hard to say how this process will go, but I think he’s making good progress at the moment. We’ll have to see from day to day.”
Höjlund will only train individually for the time being, as he did on Wednesday when he worked at the Carrington training ground. With the plan to work out automatisms with the new teammates as quickly as possible and to gain a foothold in the Premier League, the forced break comes at the wrong time for the most expensive ManUnited newcomer of the summer.
Last year’s third-placed team starts the new Premier League season next Monday (9 p.m., LIVE! on kicker) with a home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
