Football

Manchester United player suffers injury ahead of Liverpool clash

Published

5 years ago

October 22, 2021

Manchester United are sweating over the fitness of Bruno Fernandes ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Liverpool, the UK Sun reports.

Fernandes was seen “limping heavily” during a warm down session following United’s 3-2 win against Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

It would be a huge blow for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer if the 27-year-old is eventually ruled out of the crunch game.

United have not won their last three Premier League fixtures and the comeback victory over Atalanta only bought under pressure Solskjaer more time.

If the Red Devils lose to Liverpool on Sunday, they would fall seven points behind their fierce rivals after nine league matches.

Fernandes has scored four goals in 12 appearances in all competitions for United so far this season.

Solskjaer also has concerns over Marcus Rashford, who got a dead leg against the Italian side, but believes he will be fit for Sunday.

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Vote-buying remains a major concern One of the strongest warnings from Osun was the continued presence of vote-buying and voter inducement. Yiaga Africa said the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were consistent with its independent statistical projections, but cautioned that this did not remove concerns about the integrity of voters' choices amid reports of vote-buying and inducement. The concern is particularly significant ahead of 2027, when political competition will take place nationwide and involve presidential, National Assembly and state-level contests. The International Republican Institute (IRI), following a pre-election assessment mission conducted in August, identified monetised political competition, election-related violence, insecurity and declining public confidence in INEC among the structural challenges facing the 2027 elections. IRI recommended stronger investigation and prosecution of vote-buying and voter inducement, urging INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and security agencies to act on credible allegations. Technology improves transparency — but has limits The Osun election also demonstrated how electoral technology can improve transparency. INEC's electronic transmission of polling-unit results through the IReV platform provided observers and members of the public with a mechanism to monitor uploaded results. Yiaga Africa subsequently said the official results were consistent with its independent statistical estimates, describing the outcome as evidence that the announced results reflected the ballots counted at polling units. However, technical problems with BVAS were reported during voting. CDD said difficulties involving biometric verification and slow processing occurred in several LGAs, including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South. 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With Nigeria's 2027 general elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, the Osun experience provides both a warning and an opportunity: the country has made progress in electoral transparency, but vote-buying, insecurity and declining trust must be confronted before they are magnified across a nationwide election.

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Manchester United player suffers injury ahead of Liverpool clash

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Manchester United player suffers injury ahead of Liverpool clash

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