After summer signing Leny Yoro suffered an injury setback in Tuesday night’s preseason friendly loss against Arsenal, Erik ten Hag has urged Manchester United to remain optimistic.
When the Red Devils defeated Real Madrid to get the top-rated teenage defender in Europe earlier this month, it was a significant coup.
Yoro, a former Lille player, looked well in his Rangers debut last week, but he struggled against Gabriel Jesus Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
Ultimately, Rasmus Hojlund’s early goal put his team ahead 1-0, forcing Yoro to quit the field of play just after the half hour mark.
The Denmark international, himself, also succumbed to an injury shortly after opening the scoring but Ten Hag hopes both have suffered only minor injuries.
He said: ‘Of course it is too short [to know about their injuries] and we have to wait over 24 hours, then we will hopefully know more.
‘We were careful especially with Leny [Yoro] as he only did 50 per cent of the [training] sessions. He has to come up but let’s be positive and see what comes out.’
Despite the defeat, Ten Hag was encouraged by the level of United’s performance as a much-changed side in the second half eventually succumbed to Gabriel Martinelli’s well-taken winner.
‘I think [the game] was a very good level for the third week of pre-season, from both sides, but in the first half I thought we were the better team.
‘We scored a very good goal, a very good ball in behind from [Marcus] Rashford and then [Rasmus] Hojlund with a very good move and a finish, I was very pleased.
‘We also created some more good chances and we then conceded the goal which was offside.
‘It is a short slot and we are there [in San Diego] quickly, so we have to prepare the team, we must be ready and of course we have to recover from this and then go again [on Thursday].’