Man Utd lost Martinez until the end of the season
"Martinez fractured the ankle bone in the foot and is out for the rest of the season. However, the Argentine defender is expected to make a full recovery in time to be ready to play next season," Man Utd announced. April 14th.
Raphael Varane was also confirmed to be "out of action for a few weeks", but the announcement did not specify a timeline or when the French midfielder returned. Man Utd wish both Martinez and Varane the best for a speedy recovery.
Ten Hag's number one central defender pair had problems in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final draw with Sevilla 2-2 on April 13. Varane suffered an unspecified injury to make way for Harry Maguire early in the second half, and Martinez had problems even though he did not collide with anyone. He was even taken off the field by two compatriots Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuna and forced Man Utd to play with 10 players due to running out of substitutions from the 86th minute.
With these two injuries, Man Utd only has two true central defenders, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof. In the press conference on April 14, coach Erik ten Hag put his faith in the reserve duo. He said: "They are excellent centre-backs, who have proven themselves. This season, Man Utd have four or five very good centre-backs who can get the job done."
The British newspaper Guardian believes that Ten Hag can continue to pull Luke Shaw into the central defender position. The English player has been paired with Varane many times, such as the 2-1 victory over Man City in the Premier League on January 14. This season, Casemiro was also pulled down by Ten Hag to play central defender.
Besides Martinez and Varane, Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford are out for the next few weeks, Donny van de Beek is out until the end of the season and Tom Heaton is recovering from a leg injury. However, Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay can reappear in the away match against Nottingham Forest in the 31st round of the Premier League on April 16. Shaw missed the last two matches, while McTominay missed the draw with Sevilla due to injury.
Man Utd are playing in three arenas and have a maximum of 15 matches left if they reach the Europa League and FA Cup finals. After the match against Nottingham, the "Red Devils" marched to Sevilla's yard to play the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League on April 20 and then as a guest of Brighton in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on April 23.
