Christian Eriksen is close to an early comeback for Manchester United after returning to first-team training.
Eriksen has been out since late January with ligament damage in his left ankle following a tackle by Reading’s Andy Carroll in United’s FA Cup win at Old Trafford.
The Dane was initially ruled out until the end of April but he has made good progress. Manager Erik ten Hag revealed that Eriksen rejoined squad training on Tuesday even though Wednesday’s game at home to Brentford will come too soon.
‘Not for tomorrow but he's returning on the pitch, he's returning into team training today, so we have to see now how quickly he can make the progress,’ said Ten Hag.
Reflecting on the loss of Eriksen to injury and Casemiro to suspension, he added: ‘Two quality players. The midfield department, games will be decided always in midfield, when you miss two quality players it's clear. But you have a squad, if you don't have them you still have to win.’
Aaron Wan-Bissaka has also resumed training after missing Sunday’s defeat at Newcastle through illness.
The result saw United drop out of the top-four and Ten Hag re-iterated that it wasn’t good enough from his players.
‘We had a very bad performance,’ said the United boss. ‘The opponent wanted it more than us. They were sharper, you could see it in the challenges – we won only challenges in offence. In defence, the opponent beat us. Then you can't win the game.’
Ten Hag also welcomed the news that Luke Shaw has signed a new four-year contract, saying: ‘I think it's a good message. He's a modern left-back but he can also play centre-back. He matches the standards we want to have.’
