Michael Carrick offers Man Utd injury update as ‘important player’ returns | Football | Sport

Michael Carrick has welcomed the news that Mason Mount could be in contention for Sunday’s encounter between Manchester United and Aston Villa. That said, the extent of the attacking midfielder’s involvement remains uncertain. The England international has been absent from United’s last five Premier League matches due to an undisclosed injury sustained during training after January’s Manchester derby.

Nevertheless, Carrick has confirmed Mount’s return to training and believes he should be ready to feature against the Villans. At his pre-match press conference on Friday, the 44-year-old commented on Mount: “Mason is back with the group, which is fantastic. He’s an important player for us, Mason, and to have him back and involved is a good step for us.

“He is not 100 per cent in terms of back, because he’s only trained a very small amount of time, but he’s back and that’s good for us so we’ll see whether he’s involved or not on Sunday, but it’s a big step for him so we’re happy with that.”

Carrick did clarify that “that’s it in terms of players coming back for now,” seemingly confirming neither Matthijs de Ligt nor Lisandro Martinez will be available.

Carrick experienced his first loss as United’s head coach last week at Newcastle, and has since been tasked with lifting his team’s spirits ahead of a crucial match against Villa that could prove pivotal in the race for Champions League qualification.

He declared that they’ve moved on from the disappointment at St James’ Park and are eager to rectify their performance against Unai Emery’s Villa. “It’s been a good week,” Carrick stated.

“The result was disappointing, the way the game ended it was obviously disappointing. I think we’ve kind of digested that and looked at it and learned from it and trained well. We’ve trained really well this week and itching to get going on Sunday now.”

This weekend, Carrick will encounter a familiar face. He mentored Morgan Rogers during his tenure at Middlesbrough, and Rogers’ career has flourished since his move to Aston Villa. “First of all, it is fantastic for him to see Morgan going on to do so well and for a good period of time,” he said.

“He had the initial signing in the January, and I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go, it was a big step for him, he hadn’t played for an awful long time at Middlesbrough so I felt he could have done with a little bit more.

“But as soon as he has gone to Aston Villa, he took huge steps and became a major, major part of their team and part of the England team so that is how well he has done.

“You could always see what he was possibly going to be capable of and the potential in terms of his attributes, the way he carries the ball, he can play off his left foot, play off his right foot, create and score goals and really good athletically, so there were a lot of things there when we took him to start with but to see him go on and have such an impact would be probably more than I would have expected or probably more than Morgan himself would have expected.

“It is great to see though. I enjoy seeing him do so well. To come up against him is a different story. Nevertheless, he is a good person, great to work with so I am delighted he has done so well.”