Possible return, Manchester United has good news ahead of Aston Villa

Manchester United will be aiming to maintain their impressive start to 2024 when they face Aston Villa at Villa Park in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon. United, who beat Villa 3-2 in dramatic circumstances on Boxing Day, recorded a third successive win in all competitions last time out, beating West Ham United 3-0 at Old Trafford. Goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund sealed what was a fairly comfortable and routine victory.

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The win over the Hammers lifted United to sixth in the standings, moving them slightly closer to the coveted Champions League places. They are currently eight points behind fourth-placed Villa. It means there is a significant amount of importance on Sunday's match-up in the Midlands, with United going in search of a third successive league win. Their recent upturn in form has coincided with their injury list shrinking, even though Lisandro Martinez's swift return to it is a huge hammer-blow.

With that said, MEN Sport has taken a close look at the current state of play on the injury front and where Erik ten Hag's squad is at ahead of this weekend. Wan-Bissaka has missed United's last three games with an unspecified injury, last featuring in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on January 14. He returned to training on Thursday but was forced to withdraw from the session.

Speaking at his pre-Villa press conference on Thursday afternoon, Ten Hag said: "Aaron Wan-Bissaka today was training but then he dropped out. So I don't know in this moment where he is, what the diagnosis is, hopefully not too bad." After returning via the bench against Tottenham and then starting the following clashes with Newport County, Wolves and West Ham, Martinez now faces another spell on the sidelines with a knee problem. His knee buckled under the weight of Hammers defender Vladimir Coufal in last Sunday's meeting at Old Trafford and he faces at least eight weeks out.

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Mount's return

Mount has been sidelined with a calf problem for three months, last featuring in United's 1-0 win over Luton Town at Old Trafford on November 11. Like Malacia, he has made progress in his recovery, but he is still not fit enough to make his long-awaited return and it remains unclear when he could be back and available for selection. Frenchman Martial is unlikely to feature for United until the latter stages of the season after undergoing surgery on a groin injury in January. United, in a statement released last month, explained they expected him to be sidelined for 10 weeks. Should his recovery going according to plan, it is possible he could be back in contention by early to mid-April.