Ruben Amorim provides injury update on Bruno Fernandes after Aston Villa defeat

Ruben Amorim expects Bruno Fernandes to face a spell on the sidelines but warned Manchester United against making ‘mistakes’ by rushing into finding a replacement in January.

Fernandes appeared to pull up towards the end of the first half of the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa and did not reappear for the second.

The match was level at the interval but Morgan Rogers scored the winner after the break to keep Villa just three points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.

‘It was a soft tissue injury so he will miss some games for sure. You can never control these things. He is a guy who is always fit so he can recover quite well,’ said Amorim, who also expects Kobbie Mainoo to miss the Newcastle fixture after the midfielder was ruled out with injury today.

Fernandes’ injury will inevitably prompt calls for United to invest in January but Amorim warned: ‘We need to deal with that.

'What we cannot do is to reach January and try to do everything in urgency and make mistakes and then [it’s] "here we go again" with a lot of mistakes.

‘I’m not going to get together with (director of football) Jason Wilcox] and (chief executive) Omar Berrada and say: "We need a lot of players." Because we have a plan.

‘If we have to suffer, the club comes first. Of course, we are in a moment where we need points but we need to find solutions and we are going to continue with our plan. You can feel in this moment that we are going to struggle, but we will see.’

On losing Fernandes, United defender Diogo Dalot added: ‘It's massive. We don't know how bad it is but for him to come off, we know how tough he is. Hopefully it's not too bad and we keep with him for the next games.

'This is the time that opportunities come for other players and the time you step up and show you deserve to be in the team and play more minutes.

'I think that's how the players who get opportunities should look at it. We are Manchester United and we have to find a way to win.'