Gary Neville believes Erik ten Hag has a ‘big problem’ at centre-back as Manchester United could be without Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez over the festive period.
Maguire exited the World Cup at the quarter-final stage and his international team-mates Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw were both available for the Carabao Cup win against Burnley.
However, the United skipper missed the 2-0 win and Ten Hag was uncertain when the defender would be available again.
Martinez and Varane are not set to return until the New Year following their participation in the World Cup final.
That meant Casemiro partnered Victor Lindelof for the win on Wednesday and the pair look set to continue for the visit of Nottingham Forest to Old Trafford on the 27th December.
Despite failing to score, Burnley created numerous chances at Old Trafford and United looked shaky at the back.
And Neville believes Ten Hag has a ‘big problem’ in defence without Martinez and Varane at his disposal.
‘They look like they’ve got a big problem at centre back,’ Neville told Sky Sports.
‘Martínez looks like he’s going to be at least a couple of weeks, Varane obviously he was injured and you don’t know when he’s going to come back, and if Harry Maguire’s ill they’re going to go potentially with a really weakened defence into those Premier League games.
‘I think if they had been playing against a Premier League team tonight they would have been punished, so they’ve got to get some players back quickly.’
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