Ruben Amorim saw his Man Utd side go down 2-0 to West Ham at Old Trafford, their 9th defeat at the Theatre of Dreams. It was a performance that didn't fill many with confidence ahead of the MAMMOTH Europa League final next Wednesday.
The United manager selected a stronger team than many anticipated as he ran the risk of injury to key players.
And as ever with this club, that risk became a reality as 19 year old Leny Yoro went down holding his left-foot resulting in an early substitution in the second half. Both player and manager appeared distraught at the injury as to pick up something so close to the final was utterly disappointing.
However, despite all of this disappointment and pain, Ruben Amorim did say post-match that this injury "looks like a small one." The United manager added that his defender has had this problem at the start of the season.
The young Frenchman had an ankle injury from pre-season which kept him out for four months at the start of the campaign. He was out for so long in fact, that he never played a game for the manager who signed him in Erik ten Hag.
Yoro then had a foot injury not so long ago that ruled him out for almost a month. These are why there were concerns that he could be out for a long time as perhaps this was a relapse of an earlier setback. His reaction also suggested that maybe his season was over.
The update from the manager is positive but I felt that Amorim got it wrong with his starting lineup which included Yoro.
A player like him is absolutely key in that final and with Martinez being out for the season, Heaven still not back, and not knowing whether De Ligt will be available for the game in Bilbao, the last thing we needed was another key defender to pick up an injury.
This could mean that only the sainted pair of Maguire and Lindelof remain fit and ready for Ruben Amorim at centre-back.
How have these two survived all these years?
As Amorim said, Yoro has had his problems from earlier in the campaign. United also knew of this injury concern which Yoro had before the club signed him yet they proceeded to do the deal all the same. That looked to be the wrong call when he was out for four months but then once he stepped on the field, it looked to be the right call as he has been brilliant.
Yet with a player who is an injury risk, you do have to take extra care with them. The manager has been doing this with the likes of Mount and Shaw as even yesterday, he took both off before the hour mark which left us a little perplexed as to how these two guys still cannot finish an entire game of football despite being back for quite some time.
Maybe they can but it's Amorim who doesn't want to risk them?
If that is the case, then him starting and risking Yoro makes even less sense.
There were also options for United to use instead of Yoro at CB: Lindelof and Fredricson were two who were on the bench and should've started in my opinion. Of course we can say this in hindsight but we all knew the risks in the first place.
Playing a player like him in quick succession was probably asking for something like this to happen to him.
With all this being said though, there was a clip that showed t he defender walking out of the ground without a protective boot which is a positive sign.
Perhaps his injury isn't as serious as initially thought but whether he'll be back for that final in 9 days time remains to be seen. It will be a HUGE miss if he is out of that final even more so if there is no De Ligt as well. The confidence we have with them in defense compared to without them is like night and day.
We need them both at the back to have a better chance of winning.
Leny Yoro picked up a foot injury in Man Utd's 2-0 loss to West Ham | Leny Yoro: Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)