Portugal national team manager Jorge Jesus revealed that his (and Manchester United’s) creative talisman Bruno Fernandes has been “playing through pain” with a “complicated” injury for at least three matches while casting doubt about his availability in the near future.
Fernandes is nothing if not durable. Since signing for Manchester United in 2020, the midfield schemer has missed just five matches through injury and one due to illness. However, time waits for no athlete. Half of those scant absences came last season alone and it has now been unearthed that Fernandes has been nursing a nagging issue for several weeks.
“He came here with an injury from United and, as he said, has been playing through that pain for about three games now,” Jesus told assembled media this weekend. “That was one of the reasons he didn’t play up to his usual standard against Wales.”
Jesus shunted Fernandes into an unfamiliar left wing role for the clash with Wales in Lisbon on Thursday night, leaving the 32-year-old on the pitch until a substitution in the 90th-minute. He won’t be nearly so involved for Portugal’s next fixture.
How Many Games Will Bruno Fernandes Miss Through Injury?
At this stage, it would appear that Fernandes will only miss one match for Portugal, Sunday’s clash with Norway in Oslo, as a precaution to make sure he is fully fit for the trip to Denmark on Thursday, Oct. 1.
“I know him inside and out,” Jesus said of his compatriot. “I’ve already spoken with him. I’d rather not take any chances in this game and have him fully recovered and in top physical condition for the match against Denmark.”
Fernandes was part of the squad’s training session at the Ullevaal Stadion in the buildup to this weekend’s head-to-head with the World Cup quarterfinalist, nonchalantly knocking the ball around with his teammates. Despite the “complicated” billing of the ailment provided by Jesus, anything more serious would surely have seen Fernandes sent back to Manchester.
United have a crucial set of fixtures on the horizon once club soccer resumes next month, beginning with a must-win Premier League clash with a Tottenham Hotspur side mired in disarray. Roberto De Zerbi’s future is under question in north London but the capital club would move onto the same points as Manchester United with a win at Old Trafford on Saturday, Oct. 10.
There are three rounds of Champions League fixtures for Carrick to navigate before the next international break, as well as league meetings with the likes of Leeds United, Chelsea and Aston Villa. Given his willingness to push through the pain barrier, Fernandes will stand a good chance of featuring in most, if not all, of those fixtures. But should he even have to take that risk?
Is Michael Carrick Partially to Blame for Fernandes’s Injury Scare?
If Jesus’s timeline of Fernandes’s struggles relates to his final three games for United, then it would stand to reason that the experienced midfielder picked up this vague issue in the club’s Champions League opener against Sabah SK.
It’s a damning indictment on the rest of his depth options that Carrick felt compelled to not only start Fernandes against the relative minnows from Azerbaijan, but leave him on for the full 90 minutes. United were 3–0 up at halftime and, as the manager would explain, injuries to other starters forced his captain into a long evening.
“He has played an awful lot, but I think we’re developing the group and the squad to be able to accommodate that in different ways,” Carrick insisted.
A reticence to line up without Fernandes is understandable. The visit from Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup earlier this month was a rare night which saw United start without their skipper. Fernandes watched on from the sidelines as his teammates took and then squandered a two-goal lead, coming on when it was too late to salvage anything from a humbling 3–2 reverse.
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