Michael Carrick admits there is no guarantee Matthijs De Ligt will play again this season as Manchester United try to find a cure for the Dutchman’s back injury.
De Ligt was only meant to be out of action for a short time, but he has not played in almost four months after an unexpected layoff stretching back to the end of November.
United only have eight games left – starting with tomorrow’s clash with Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium – and Carrick doesn’t know if De Ligt will be able to play a part in any of them.
‘It’s difficult to say, just because it’s taken that much time,’ said the United boss. ‘It’s one of those things with backs that sometimes you think it’s alright, and then all of a sudden it’s not quite right.
‘It’s like any injury. It’s trying to get the balance right. Some are a little bit more straightforward than others. He’s improving, but it’s not improving as quick as we all hope.
‘I’m not trying to hide anything. We’re just being patient and working through it. We’ll obviously give him time and try to get him back as quick as we can, but literally at the moment we don’t know so we’ll have to wait and see.’
Asked if 26-year-old De Ligt needs to change his rehabilitation and might even require surgery, Carrick added: ‘I don’t want to get into that at this stage. I think we’ll obviously try and do whatever we can to help Matta, whatever that takes.
‘We’re working through that now at the moment, to be honest. Hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later, and everything will be fine and we can move on.’
Matthijs de Ligt is facing a race against time to return this season as he continues to struggle with a troublesome back issue
Harry Maguire has anchored United’s defence in De Ligt’s absence and been one of the standout players since Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January.
The 33-year-old will be out of contract in the summer, and is in talks with United over a new deal that would lower his £180,000-a-week salary.
‘Harry’s done fantastic for us, I think it’s pretty obvious to say that,’ said Carrick. ‘He’s had a big impact on what we’ve done, and I enjoy working with him.
‘There’s obviously talks going on in terms of what the squad’s going to look like come the end of the season and what it looks like after that. We’ll see what comes of that.’
