Ruben Amorim has joked that Bruno Fernandes may want his job as Manchester United head coach after the captain observed training sessions and remained a vocal leader despite being injured.
Fernandes could be out for up to three more weeks after sustaining a hamstring problem in United’s 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on 21 December. Amorim was asked if the 31-year-old is still an influence on the team and offered a humorous response regarding his own role.
“He’s the guy that is watching training even after treatment. He’s going there,” the Portuguese said of his compatriot. “I don’t know if he wants my job or not, but he’s a leader. He cannot be that guy that when he is not playing, he’s not talking and speaking. He’s always speaking. That’s why he’s the captain. He has bad things sometimes, the way he moves his arms [gestures, on-field], but has a lot of good things too. So there are a lot of things that you don’t see but that he does. He’s a great leader all the time.”
Fernandes is already pushing to start working again. “Bruno was already saying that he needs to train, but we don’t know,” Amorim said. “No chance he is going to play against Wolves, no chance.”
While United host Wolves in Tuesday’s 8.15pm kick-off, Amorim is unsure whether Mason Mount will be available after he was removed at half-time of Boxing Day’s 1-0 win over Newcastle at Old Trafford.
“I don’t know how Mase is going to be for that game,” said Amorim. “Kobbie Mainoo is also not going to be ready, Bruno, Matt [De Ligt] and Harry [Maguire] are not going to be ready. So I think we are not going to have more players.”
If Mount is ruled out this will mean eight players are unavailable as Noussair Mazraoui, Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo are at the Africa Cup of Nations. Amorim was asked if any of the injured might recover for United’s trip to Leeds on Sunday.
“Kobbie Mainoo is going to start training on the pitch also, so we will see. Matthijs is struggling a little bit. Harry’s the same, so I don’t know,” he said.
United’s win over Newcastle took them to 29 points and a season-high fifth before Liverpool’s win over Wolves on Saturday dropped them back to sixth. Yet though Wolves have only two points Amorim pointed to their 2-1 loss at Arsenal on 13 December, which came only after Yerson Mosquera’s 94th-minute own-goal.
He said: “They show against Arsenal, they could get at least one point. So in the Premier League you never know. They have their problems, we have our problems but there are no excuses. We need to win, we will try to win the game.”
