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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Manchester United get injury boost vs Barcelona as two players set to return

Antony and Harry Maguire are expected to return for Manchester United in their Europa League play-off second leg against Barcelona.

Antony has missed the last four matches with a leg injury while Maguire sat out the win over Leicester on Sunday with a knee problem.

Anthony Martial has been sidelined for the last three weeks with a hip injury and will not be available against Barcelona but has resumed light training.

Read more: United face fixture issue if they progress in Europa League and FA Cup

"We still have the training to go but I expect Harry Maguire and Antony are available," Erik ten Hag said. "Anthony Martial is not available. He's back, he's back on the pitch. Not back in team training so we wait for that.

"What we do differently (from the first leg) you we will see tomorrow on the pitch. We have an idea, of course, but we can't tell that now."

Barcelona will be without midfielders Pedri and Gavi as the former is injured and the latter suspended, so veteran midfielder Sergio Busquets could return.

Busquets, 34, has not played since February 5 due to an ankle injury but he was named on the bench in the weekend win over Cadiz in La Liga.

Barcelona coach Xavi has settled on a formation that accommodates four midfielders but it remains to be seen if he will tweak his tactics to offset the loss of Pedri and Gavi.

"I don't know what Xavi's thinking but obviously Gavi and Pedri are big, big great players," Ten Hag added. "Although they are very young they have already had a positive effect on the game of Barcelona.

"But also their squad has so much depth, they have players who can replace them and tomorrow will be a very good team from Barcelona. If we want to win we have to be at our very best."

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