Amorim says Man Utd will ‘suffer’ without Bruno Fernandes and other key players

Ruben Amorim says he expects Bruno Fernandes to be out for a period of time after going off injured in the defeat to Aston Villa.

Morgan Rogers scored twice to hand United a defeat at Villa Park, with Matheus Cunha having equalised following Rogers’ opener.

United were forced to play the second half without their captain Fernandes, who was forced off with a muscle injury.

Lisandro Martinez came on to play in midfield, with Casemiro suspended and Kobbie Mainoo also not involved in the squad due to an injury.

On Fernandes’ injury, Amorim said: “I don’t know. I think it’s a soft issue. I think he’s going to lose (miss) some games.

“I don’t know for sure. So, let’s see. I don’t know.

“It’s a guy that is always fit, so he can recover quite well. But I don’t know.”

Amorim also says he does not expect Mainoo to be back for United’s next game against Newcastle.

“I will see what we are going to do,” he said.

“I think Kobbie Mainoo is out. Bruno is out. So, we will see.

“We are going to find solutions. No excuses. We need to win the next game and we will try to win the next game. We have to find different situations, but I remember in this moment last year, we had the same issue.

“We know that we are going to suffer without all these players, but with our fans, we will try to arrange something to win the next game.”

United are also currently without Amad, Bryan Mbeumo and Noussair Mazraoui, who are taking part in the Africa Cup of Nations.

But Amorim has warned against a January spending spree to cope with his side’s absences.

“What we cannot do is to reach January and try to do everything in urgency and make mistakes,” he said. “And then, here we go again with a lot of mistakes.

“I am not going to get with Jason (Wilcox) and Omar (Berrada) and I am going to say we need a lot of players. Because we have a plan. If we have to suffer, the club comes first.

“Of course, we are in the moment that we need points, but we need to find solutions. And we are going to continue with our plan. Of course, you can feel that in this moment we are going to struggle, but we will see.”