Amad Diallo has suffered an ankle ligament injury in training with Manchester United and could miss the rest of the season, sources have told ESPN.
The 22-year-old, United’s six-goal Premier League leading scorer, has been ruled out of Ruben Amorim’s squad for Sunday’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur and faces a scan to assess the full extent of the damage.
Reports have said that the Ivory Coast international will be sidelined for the remainder of this season, but sources said that it is still too early to say definitively that Diallo will not play again in this campaign.
But the best-case scenario at this stage is that Amad will be out, according to sources, for a number of weeks, which will be a huge blow to the team’s hopes of qualifying for European football next season by either winning the FA Cup or Europa League.
In a post on social media, Amad said: “Extremely disappointed to be writing this message in such a crucial time of the season. Unfortunately, I will be out for some time with an injury.
“I will come back stronger than ever!! Time to support the boys from the outside. Still loads to play for”.
Amad has emerged as one of the few highlights of United’s season since being handed a regular starting position by Amorim following his appointment as head coach in November in the wake of Erik ten Hag’s dismissal at manager.
The former Atalanta youngster signed a five-year contract in January as a reward for his performances, but his injury-enforced absence means United will now have to rely on out-of-form forwards Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee for the goals to keep them alive in the cup competitions and secure the result to improve on the team’s league position, which sees them go into the Spurs game in the bottom half of the table.
Forwards Marcus Rashford and Antony both left United on loan in January, to Aston Villa and Real Betis respectively, with no ability to recall either player to boost Amorim’s squad.