Manchester United latest team news vs Burnley (EFL Cup)

With the 2022 World Cup coming to a climax as Lisandro Martinez’s Argentina defeated Raphael Varane’s France, club football is swiftly back in action with Manchester United and Burnley facing off in the EFL Cup on Wednesday.

Erik ten Hag’s squad contained 13 players who took part in the World Cup, with 11 of them making it to the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, nine of this group were eliminated in the last eight, with Brazil, England, Portugal & the Netherlands exiting the competition.

It was revealed by the Mail last week that Erik ten Hag gave every player who was eliminated from the competition at this stage a one-week break in order to recover from their Qatar-based expedition, meaning that Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford, Tyrell Malacia, Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Dalot, Antony, Fred, and Casemiro have all had some sort of break before club football resumes.

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Two obvious absentees from the fixture are Martinez and Varane. With Ten Hag’s starting pair featuring in the dramatic World Cup final on Sunday, they will likely be given a one-week break in order to recover from their World Cup plights before re-joining the first-team squad and starting XI.

In terms of injuries, Manchester United only suffered one during their week-long training camp in Spain, where they played two friendly fixtures against CF Cadiz and Real Betis, with both fixtures ending in defeat.

Young centre-back Teden Mengi had to be stretchered off against Betis just 18 minutes into the fixture, replaced by fellow academy defender Rhys Bennett.

Beyond this, Erik ten Hag will have a full bill of health for the knockout fixture against Burnley, with striker Anthony Martial once again fully fit and ready to go after having an injury-stricken first half of the season that kept him from being in contention from France’s World Cup squad.

It remains to be seen how involved the World Cup players will be in the fixture with games coming thick and fast from now on, but one thing is for sure – Erik ten Hag will have to use his squad to maximum capacity during the rest of this season in order to fulfil the club’s goals of Champions League qualification and beyond.