Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo has been ruled out for a period of at least 6 weeks and could face an even longer period on the sidelines if he undergoes a surgery on his shoulder. At first, it was thought that the Argentine might have dislocated his shoulder, but it is yet to be confirmed by the club and the player himself who revealed on twitter that “it was nothing”. The 24-year old injured his shoulder during a challenge on Martin Demichelis in the Manchester derby and had to be carried off with a stretcher.
Manager Louis Van Gaal had told Sky Sports after the game against Manchester City that Rojo will most definitely miss the next game against Crystal Palace, “The shoulder is out, you never know how long that will take, I have to wait until tomorrow I think but he shall not play against Crystal Palace (on Saturday).”
Gracias a todos por los mensajes. Gracias a dios fue solo un mal momento/ thank you all for your messages. thank god it was nothing
— marcos rojo (@marcosrojo5) November 2, 2014
According to the mirror, the £16m summer signing could miss up to 3 months of action if his shoulder is operated upon. If that happens then Van Gaal will have a major problem to deal with as they’ll be without Phil jones, Jonny Evans and Marcos Rojo in defence. Chris Smalling was sent off in the derby this Sunday and he’ll automatically serve a 1-match ban. The result is that we could be looking at a makeshift back four with Michael Carrick playing as a center back alongside Paddy McNair. Van Gaal has the option of recalling Tyler Blackett into the main team, but the presence of Carrick will definitely be a better option instead of deploying two inexperienced defenders.
Van Gaal will be pleased by what he saw in the last 20 minutes against Manchester City and will hope that the team will put a similar shift in their next fixture against Palace. The defeat against City has left United in 10th place, 13 points behind league leaders Chelsea with only 10 games played.