Real Sociedad will reportedly be missing the services of seven first-team players for Thursday’s Europa League contest with Manchester United.
Imanol Alguacil’s club presently leads Group E by three points, three points clear of second-placed Manchester United, with the two sides ready to compete for first place this week.
Real Sociedad would take top place and an automatic place in the Europa League knockout round if they managed to avoid losing by two goals to Erik ten Hag’s team.
The Basque side won all five of their group stage games, including a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford in September, thanks to Brais Mendez’s controversial penalty.
Real Sociedad just embarked on an eight-game winning streak in all competitions, and they have won nine of their last 11 games.
However, Alguacil’s team has already lost two of their last three games, losing 1-0 to Real Valladolid in La Liga on October 22 and 2-0 to Real Betis in the league on Saturday.
The White and Blues were without a number of key players against Real Betis, and Diario Vasco reports that the club still have major fitness issues ahead of this encounter.
According to the report, at least seven players are likely to be missing, including Ander Barrenetxea, Mikel Oyarzabal, Aihen Munoz, Umar Sadiq, Momo Cho, Takefusa Kubo, and David Silva.
All seven reportedly did not participate in squad training on Tuesday, and David Silva is the only one who could play against the 20-time English champions.
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Oyarzabal is currently recovering from a long-term knee ailment, while Munoz has been out since the middle of October with a hamstring issue.
Barrenetxea has also been absent recently owing to a muscle ailment, while Sadiq and Cho have knee and hamstring issues, respectively.
Meanwhile, Kubo is certainly out of this bout due to a dislocated shoulder, but Alex Sola might recover in time for the key European encounter.
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