Erik ten Hag reveals latest on André Onana’s availability amid five injury updates

Erik ten Hag has revealed availability updates on six Manchester United players ahead of their Premier League tie against Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.

A lot has been made of André Onana this season after he got off to a less-than-ideal start to life at Manchester United, with the player being partially at fault for the club’s Champions League exit earlier in December.

Erik ten Hag signed Onana from Inter Milan for a fee of around £45 million in the summer, and although at the time he had no plans to reunite with the Cameroon national team, the situation has changed, and Onana will now represent the country at the upcoming AFCON tournament.

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Cameroon’s first fixture of the competition comes on 15 January, with a question mark hanging over whether Onana will be available to play against Wigan Athletic on 8 January as Cameroon prepare for the tournament.

“The situation is that we’re talking, we have good relationships with all the federations,” Ten Hag revealed on Friday afternoon. “It’s also about Sofyan (Amrabat) and Hannibal.”

Speaking further in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Nottingham Forest tie, Ten Hag explained that he does not expect any new returns ahead of the New Year.

It will be a similar squad as we had against Villa,” he said.

“Mid-January, we expect many players back. Mason [Mount], Casemiro, Martínez, Malacia, so we expect Harry Maguire, of course. We expect many players to return in January.”

The Forest game represents United’s final fixture of 2023, with the club looking to push on in 2024 to try and regain their space in the Premier League’s top four ahead of qualification for the Champions League next season.