By Mark Weasley
Ahead of tonight’s Champions League game against CSKA Moscow, Manchester United have been handed a double injury boost as the pair of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Phil Jones have received fitness boosts ahead of the tie.
Both players have been out for some time due to injury complaints. While Jones has been out since the last international break, Ibrahimovic returned recently after a 7-month layoff but is still not as fit as the club and manager would want. Jones has missed the last few matches and has been replaced by summer signing, Victor Lindelof who has looked the part in recent matches after a difficult start.
We take on CSKA Moscow tonight in the last group stage of the game with our qualification to the next round not yet assured despite amassing 12 points from a possible 15. A number of players will be rested as we look ahead to the Manchester derby this weekend.
After a morale boosting win over Arsenal last week, we switch attention to the Champions League, a game where Zlatan and Jones will be looking to participate. Both men may not start the game but may be introduced at some point in the game to build up fitness with the derby on Sunday the match Jose Mourinho will be looking to feature them in.
However, there is little possibility that they will feature tonight given that they are just returning to full fitness. Both men trained at Carrington, our training facility yesterday to hand boost to the manager ahead of what promises to be our biggest game of the season on Sunday.
With Romelu Lukaku struggling for goals in the past two months, Zlatan will be looking to score against City, a feat he managed in the reverse fixture last year. Jones has struck a good relationship with Ivorian centre back, Eric Bailly but the pair of Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof have been in excellent form too.
With Manchester City eight points ahead of us in the title race, we know that anything short of victory will hamper our title aspirations.
