Manchester United hit by defensive injury crisis ahead of Arsenal meeting

Jose Mourinho has only three fully-fit defenders to rely on as Manchester United welcome Arsenal to Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

Marcos Rojo, Diogo Dalot and Matteo Darmian are United's only defenders certain of being in contention for the visit of Unai Emery's side, with a raft of injuries limiting Mourinho's options otherwise.

Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly missed Saturday's disappointing 2-2 draw at Southampton with foot and back injuries respectively, while Victor Lindelof is likely to be sidelined until Christmas with a muscular problem.

Mourinho revealed at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday that Phil Jones will also miss Arsenal's visit after picking up an injury at St Mary's. Luke Shaw was withdrawn midway through the second half at St Mary's with an injury and is also a doubt.

Antonio Valencia was not part of the matchday squad against Southampton and is set to remain unavailable. Ashley Young, meanwhile, is suspended.

Mourinho suggested that he will have to 'wait' until the eleventh hour to learn whether some of his injured defenders can play and admitted that selecting his starting line-up will be difficult.

"Against Southampton, three hours before the game I didn’t know the team I was going to play," he said. "Nobody knew the team and ourselves we didn’t know yet. We were waiting to see who could and couldn’t and I think we are going to be in a very similar situation this time.

"If you asked me, if the game is now at 11 o'clock, I would say Smalling is not playing, Bailly is not playing, Jones is not playing. Of course Lindelof is out of the question. But we have to wait.

"Valencia is not playing, Shaw is a doubt, Darmian is back but I have to wait and select everybody again and take everybody and maybe tomorrow we decide, like in the last match, a couple of hours before the game."

This spate of injuries means Mourinho is likely to deploy one of Scott McTominay or Nemanja Matic, both naturally midfielders, in the centre of defence.

The pair played alongside Jones in a three-man defence at Southampton. In an interview with Brazilian outlet RedeTV after the stalemate, Mourinho bemoaned the fact that playing as a centre-back does not come naturally to either McTominay or Matic.

“In the absence of more central defenders to play, we had to occupy that area with players who are midfielders, who do not know how to play in defence, who have no characteristics to play in the defence, but who occupied that area in a zonal way, tried to hide the weaknesses that everyone knew we had,” he said.

United's options are also limited up front, with Alexis Sanchez ruled out with a hamstring problem. Like Shaw, Romelu Lukaku also came off against Southampton with an injury, throwing his availability against Arsenal into doubt.

Mourinho refused to give a detailed team update when speaking to MUTV, United's in-house television channel, for fear of handing Arsenal a competitive advantage.

“I don’t want to update you. I would like Arsenal TV to make the same questions but they don’t, they hide everything from the inside, so why should I answer to you,” he said.

“We are going to be in difficulty again to build the team. We are again going to have to make adaptations and compensations to try to give some balance to the team. But then I believe we are again going to have the spirit to fight and to try to win the match.”