When Manchester United released their teamsheet an hour before the start of Sunday's Premier League stalemate with Newcastle United there was an unfamiliar look to it.
For the first time since arriving at the club during the summer transfer window, Christian Eriksen's name was nowhere to be seen on said sheet for a league fixture. The absence of his name on the teamsheet and on the club's Twitter account immediately caused a degree of panic among the fans and marked the beginning of the inevitable question being asked: where is he?
Erik ten Hag quickly provided the answer the fans were looking for during his pre-match interview with United's in-house media, confirming that he had been ruled out because of illness. It was obvious before that, however, that the Dane had been left out because he was unavailable, as opposed to being dropped based on his recent performances.
