Bruno Fernandes continues to play through an injury first revealed on international duty, according to Manchester United manager Michael Carrick.
Carrick’s dazzling interim spell was largely built around Fernandes, who racked up 13 of his record-setting 21 assists under his guidance to drag United from mid-table obscurity all the way back to the Champions League.
That form has not continued this season. Fernandes has not contributed to a goal in five of United’s six Premier League matches so far, with a hat trick and assist in the 5–2 win over Ipswich Town doing a lot of heavy lifting in the stats column.
Portugal manager Jorge Jesus revealed during the international break that Fernandes had been playing through a “complicated” injury, potentially explaining his struggles since the World Cup.
“People maybe don’t realize it, but it happens a lot,” Carrick confessed after Fernandes failed to light up Saturday’s 1–1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. “Players play with issues.
“I probably played 80% of my games with some sort of issue. It’s not ideal but it’s kind of manageable.”
As it turns out, “managing” that issue is proving to be somewhat impossible for Carrick.
The No-Win Situation Facing Carrick
There is a pretty easy way to guide Fernandes through this injury. A spell on the sidelines would do him wonders.
Fernandes’s injury is evidently not particularly serious, so a few weeks of rest would likely set him up for a return to his physical peak. The problem for Carrick is that if Fernandes does not play for United for a few weeks, there is no guarantee he would still be the manager when he returns.
The Portugal international is United’s best player and, with all due respect to the rest of United’s stars, that is hardly a tough debate. You need your best players to drag you out of the sort of rut in which the Red Devils currently find themselves, so leaving Fernandes out of the matchday squad when it is not medically necessary to do so would be a hugely controversial decision—the sort of thing that could cost a manager their job.
Carrick’s faith in Fernandes is already clear. He has played every minute in the Premier League so far this season and even got 90 minutes in the Champions League victory over Sabah, despite the fact the game was won by half time.
The only match this season in which Fernandes did not start was the Carabao Cup defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, in which Carrick turned to his captain off the bench in a desperate attempt to salvage something from a game that had already proven the perils of trying to go without the team’s talisman.
If Carrick rests Fernandes for the next two weeks, he would miss a total of five matches: two Champions League games against Atlético Madrid and Como, as well as Premier League outings against Leeds United, Bournemouth and Chelsea.
Those are all, given the circumstances, must-win games for Carrick, who knows the need to keep turning to Fernandes. The Portugal international will hardly be kicking up a fuss against his continuation in the lineup, clearly the sort of player ready to give his all for the club he loves.
Fernandes is running himself into the ground. Until the pressure on the club starts to ease, neither he nor Carrick will see any other way out of the situation.
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