Manchester United who lost 1-0 in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford will be hoping to return same favour to Real Sociedad when they play guest to the La Liga giants in the Europa League clash on Thursday in their bid to finish top of the Group E.
Erik ten Hag and United will need to win by at least two goals in the race to achieve their quest of finishing as Group E leaders when the two sides meet to play their final group game at San Sebastian at the expense of their host.
Meanwhile, it appears as good news for Manchester United as Real Sociedad’s hope of getting another victory have been hit by a string of injuries after they picked up an impressive 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture.
National Daily gathered that seven players are expected to miss out due to fitness problems, with former Manchester City favourite David Silva one of those to be suffering with injury.
Takefusa Kubo, Ander Barrenetxea, Momo Cho, Aihen Munoz, Mikel Oyarzabal and Umar Sadiq are all also expected to miss the game with the Red Devils National Daily learned.
Real Sociedad have lost their last two La Liga games, but remain fifth in their domestic league after a solid start to the season overall.
And while Real Sociedad have been plagued by injury woes, reverse is the case for Manchester United as their injury problems appear to be easing, with Harry Maguire returning to the starting XI at the weekend and Donny van de Beek back on the bench.
Anthony Martial has been back in training and could be involved in Spain, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka is also close to a return.
Similarly, United boss Ten Hag has not ruled the return and involvement of Antony who missed the win over West Ham on Sunday in northern Spain as could Victor Lindelof, who has been ill.
‘I think they will recover but I can’t tell you any more,’ said Ten Hag on Sunday. ‘We have to see what develops in the coming days and how they progress but I hope, when we go to Spain, everyone is on board.
‘We need them all. There are still four games to go in a short period. You see it’s tough for all teams, but also for us, we need 11 players and we need the squad to cover everything.’