Manchester United Star Suffers Injury, Ruled Out Of International Duty
Manchester United have received another injury blow with youth defender Paddy McNair after the youngster sustained an hamstring injury during the Red Devils 2-1 victory over Everton on Sunday afternoon. The defender is part of the make-shift defence line designed by Louis van Gaal in the absence of more reliable first team regulars. BBC has reported that the injury sustained by McNair has prevented the youngster from being called up of action with the Northern Ireland national team. Paddy was supposed to fill in for injured Manchester United team-mate Jonny Evans who hobbled off during Manchester United’s 5-3 defeat to Liecester City at the King Power stadium.
Paddy was unexpectedly drafted in to face West Ham as a result of the intensive injury worry that has been ravaging Manchester United over the last few weeks and even as Sam Allardyce’s men mounted a late pressure, Paddy McNair helped his side to cling on to the 2-1 victory that heralded Manchester United’s current run of form. His performance on his debut received praises from fellow defender Rafael saying that future looks bright for the Northern-Irishman. The Brazilian was reported by MUTV as saying;
“He was really good in the least. He saved one shot in the fist-half with a header that was fantastic and I think he’s got a good future ahead of him”
Manchester United will be left gasping for air with this new development having already witnessed a lengthy period of injuries which the manager Loius van Gaal has termed the worst injury crisis of his career. With the international break coming up, the number of games that Paddy will miss for the Red Devils will be reduced although the Dutchman will have to churn out another defensive block in the game against West Brom on Monday.
At a time when the Dutchman was without several defenders including Jonny Evans, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw, Van Gaal turned to reserve team defenders Blacklet and McNair. It was very tactical of the Manchester United boss to go very flexible in handling the defensive woes with the various defensive deployments that he mapped out and the 19 year old rewarded his boss with an admirable 87% passing accuracy this season. Now that the Northern-Irishman is no longer available, Louis van Gaal will have no choice than to force on newly returned Phil Jones to partner with Marcos Rojo since the Dutchman has stated several times that he couldn’t risk a combination of two left footed centre-backs (Marcos Rojo and Tyler Blacklet).