Why Man United face shortage of attackers as Benjamin Sesko injury blow confirmed

Manchester United will be without Benjamin Sesko for about three weeks with the knee injury he suffered in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham.

And manager Ruben Amorim admitted he could be short of forwards for the December game against Wolves which Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo are set to miss because of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Amorim is confident that Sesko has avoided a major injury but will be without the £73m signing for Monday’s clash against Everton as well as forthcoming matches with Crystal Palace and West Ham, though he hopes the Slovenian might return for the meeting with Wolves.

Top scorer Mbeumo, Amad and Noussair Mazraoui are likely to have to go to Africa on 7 December and could be absent for up to six weeks while Sesko, who has scored two goals in 12 games for United, could return around then.

“More or less at the same time, I don’t want to say for sure but when they are going to the camp I expect to have Ben back,” Amorim said. “He is going to stay a few weeks out, I don’t know how long but it is not that serious, we need to be careful with him. He is doing the recovery. He is doing better.”

Amorim is hopeful United can persuade Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Morocco respectively to delay the departures of Mbeumo, Amad and Mazraoui as he risks being short of players for the meeting with the relegation-threatened Wolves.

"It's not ideal because they are so important in our team and we don't have a long squad," he said. “We have the rules. When we have to release the players, we'll see. We are doing our job to try to maintain the players a little bit longer, but it's not just in our hands. So we'll try to arrange something with the federations, but we need to respect their wills in this case.”

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United will definitely be without defender Harry Maguire for the Everton game and is waiting to see if midfielder Kobbie Mainoo will be able to return to the squad.

Centre-back Lisandro Martinez, who has not played since being stretchered off against Crystal Palace in February, is in contention to make his comeback.

“I feel Licha is coming close to being able to play,” Amorim added. “We need to be careful. He's going to struggle in the first minutes, but he's clearly in a better position if you compare it to two weeks ago.”