UPDATE: Apparently Rooney and Martial are injured and Rashford is ill!
Anthony Martial (injury) + Marcus Rashford (ill) out. Severity of Rooney injury not known but couldn't complete session. Eng squad on Thurs.
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) March 12, 2017
According to the Manchester Evening News, who were on hand this evening as United departed for London, no recognized strikers were in the traveling squad. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is suspended, but none of Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial, or Marcus Rashford were present either.
No Rooney, no Rashford, no Martial on the #MUFC train. Zlatan suspended. A false '9' or Fellaini upfront? #mufc #cfchttps://t.co/PzyOJH5qYX
— Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) March 12, 2017
The report does point out that with 24 hours still go until the game, the missing forwards could still join up with the squad. Apparently, such things have happened on United’s travels a few times already this season, with players traveling separately due to personal reasons. It would be quite the coincidence however for all three available strikers to not travel with the team for such reasons.
Maybe Mourinho’s playing games? Or maybe he plans to use Fellaini up front to try to dominate in the air, one of the few areas where Chelsea aren’t the strongest (though we coped admirably with Andy Carroll and West Ham last Monday).
In any case, while this may be prove to be meaningless or even misleading, here’s Manchester United’s full traveling squad for Monday night’s FA Cup quarterfinal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
GOALKEEPERS: David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Dean Henderson
DEFENDERS: Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw
MIDFIELDERS: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young
FORWARDS(?): Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Juan Mata