AFCON-bound Man United trio’s Bournemouth availability doubtful with Amorim uncertain if they will play a part.
The participation of Man United’s AFCON-bound trio of Bryan Mbeumo, Noussair Mazraoui, and Amad is up in the air ahead of their fixture against Bournemouth.
Fifa has mandated that clubs release players for the competition on Monday. The tournament begins in Morocco on December 21. Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Morocco have called up Diallo, Mbeumo, and Mazraoui, respectively. If there is a disagreement between clubs and national teams, Fifa has promised to intercede.
Amorim said: “We are still in conversations with the national teams, the game is on Monday so they are training and we are trying to prepare all scenarios. It’s frustrating but at the same time nobody knows who is going to play, so it’s a good thing. We have players to cope with everything.
“With a long week you can work on several things to prepare for the game. Every national team has their ideas about when they want the players. I expect tomorrow [Saturday] to have a decision but we are waiting until the last moment to choose the best team.”
United are sixth and have lost only once in their past nine Premier League games. Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt remain unavailable owing to injury but Benjamin Sesko may return. Amorim said: “He has some food poisoning but let’s wait – we still have two training sessions.”
Of Monday’s challenge the head coach said: “It’s a top team, top manager [Andoni Iraola]. I don’t look at the results, I look at the way they face every opponent: they press really hard, they are direct in the game. I expect a really tough game but we need to win, especially at home.”