Just like that, Manchester United are down to the bare bones in defence.
Despite spending about £230million on centre-backs and signing a new one in five of the last seven summer transfer windows, United now find themselves in a position of having only two available for Thursday's trip to Cyprus to face Nicosia and likely for Sunday's match at Everton.
Eric Bailly's loan move to Marseille left Erik ten Hag with four senior centre-backs but now two are sidelined. Captain Harry Maguire hasn't started since the 4-0 defeat at Brentford but picked up a knock during England's thrilling 3-3 draw with Germany in the international break. Raphael Varane had taken his place and has looked at his imperious best but was struck by injury once again in Sunday's shambolic derby defeat.
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The Frenchman suffered an ankle injury and was off the field when Erling Haaland was left unmarked to nod in the second goal. Varane battled on until United were 4-0 down but at that point could no longer continue. It appears his injury doesn't look to be serious as sources have described it as 'not bad.'
The club are rightly remaining cautious though with Varane's considerable injury struggles since arriving at Old Trafford. He missed 17 games last season with a variety of ailments.
This leaves Ten Hag with only his trustee Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof, who has seen little action so far this season. The lack of minutes has perhaps been harsh on the Swede who stood out more than most last season of having a solid enough campaign as everything else crumbled around him.
Yet, it can't be argued that Martinez and Varane weren't developing a great partnership together before a massive reality check was handed to them on Sunday. Varane was rolling back the years to his Real Madrid peak with elegant and domineering displays, while the scrappy Martinez won fans' hearts with his tenacious tackling and incisive distribution. But at the Etihad that progress took a massive hit as it looked as though the whole back line had never played with one another before, all out of sync as City joyously exploited the gaps.
Now Lindelof has been handed a lifeline to assert himself back in the side. With Varane set to be unavailable for at least one match, likely more, and Maguire still sidelined, he will walk in alongside Martinez and have a bit of time to show the manager exactly what he can do.
Playing alongside Martinez could suit him, too. One of Lindelof's biggest issues is his tendency to push forward to try and win the ball but getting caught out and leaving United open, as his lack of physicality makes him unsuited for being the member of the pairing that pushes up. Thankfully, Martinez has now taken that mantle and his dogged determination in winning the ball back means he gets shrugged off possession far less often. Instead of being the presser, Lindelof can take up Varane's job of sitting back and cleaning up the danger should it get past Martinez and should hopefully be less exposed.
Lindelof obviously isn't as good as Varane but he certainly isn't as prone to injury and is more regularly available. It's sad but at this stage of his career Varane simply can't be relied upon to play even 10 games in a row so building a defence around him is a risky proposition, despite his quality.
If Lindelof can come in and continue the good work Varane started alongside Martinez then the spot could be his to claim even when the competition for places returns.
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