MANCHESTER UNITED BOSS Erik ten Hag does not know if in-form Marcus Rashford will be available for the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
The 25-year-old has been in sparkling form this season and helped the Red Devils to beat Barcelona in the Europa League knockout play-off round on Thursday night.
Rashford was substituted in the 88th minute and seemed to hint on Instagram he had picked up a knock, posting an image of him walking down the touchline looking in discomfort accompanied with a bandaged emoji.
Asked if the forward, who has scored 16 goals in 18 matches since the World Cup, will be available to face Newcastle at Wembley, United manager Ten Hag said: “I don’t know.
“So, players now are coming in. We have to do investigations, medical of course. Yesterday we did but straight after the game most of the time you can’t say.
We have to wait for a 100 per cent diagnosis, so we have to wait.”
Ten Hag has labelled Newcastle “annoying”, warning his players and officials to be wary of their supposed time-wasting antics.
“I think it’s a great team with a clear philosophy about how they want to play the game,” Ten Hag said. “The key word is intensity. They do really well. They’re an annoying team to play against, so we have to find a way to win.
“They try to annoy you. We have to make sure that we play our game and we focus on our game.”
It was an eye-catching comment that was followed up by a message to referee David Coote – the kind of mind games Sir Alex Ferguson, who the Dutchman had dinner with this week, used to make before big games.
Asked if his “annoying” comment was in reference to time-wasting tactics, Ten Hag said: “For instance.
“The referees want to play effective time. They have the lowest in the league and they are quite successful with it.
“So, it’s up to us that we get speed in the game but also we are then dependent on the refereeing as well.”
Opta stats show that Leeds have had the ball in play marginally less than Newcastle over the course of the Premier League season.
The sports data company also said the ball was ‘in-play’ for 53.4 per cent of the match when United were held to a 0-0 draw by Newcastle at Old Trafford in October.
Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope has been accused of slowing the game down and will be absent through suspension at Wembley, where ex-Liverpool man Loris Karius is set to come in for his debut.
I’m not in the instructions of the opponents, so I don’t know (if Newcastle will miss Pope),” Ten Hag said. “Also, I can’t influence that.
“I can only influence (our team). We have to make it our game, so focus on the job we have to do, focus on playing football when the ball is in the game. It’s about that, so fully concentrated on that.
“Don’t get distracted from what can be, whatever is on the pitch. We have to focus on the job and find our way and finds the moments where we can strike.”
