Carrick explains Sesko absence vs Fulham as Man Utd suffer fresh blow

Manchester United are assessing Benjamin Sesko after the striker picked up an injury, Michael Carrick has confirmed. Sesko, 23, missed Sunday's clash with Fulham, having not travelled to London with the rest of Carrick's squad.

The Slovenia international was subbed off in the second half of Wednesday's woeful 3-2 loss at home to Brighton in the Carabao Cup. It's possible that the setback is a reoccurrence of the shin injury which he first sustained during a clash with Liverpool in May and ruled him out of pre-season.

When asked for an update before kick-off at Craven Cottage, Carrick replied: "A little bit of an assessment at the moment. He pulled up after the game the other day with a little bit of pain, so we'll have to see how he is."

Sesko featured in United's first six matches of the season, starting two. He scored in games against Everton and Sabah.

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Sesko is now a doubt for his country's Nations League fixtures against Scotland, North Macedonia and Switzerland during the international break. The ex-RB Leipzig star was called up by Slovenia manager Bostjan Cesar earlier this week.

Carrick hoped to have Sesko at his disposal for what was billed as a must-win game, as Matheus Cunha started up front instead. After mustering just four points from their opening four Premier League games, the pressure was on the Red Devils boss.

"I know the club, I know the role, I know what's expected here in terms of playing at a certain standard, playing at a certain level, achieving certain things on the pitch," Carrick said.

"In terms of future and ownership and how long I've got in the job, that's just totally not in my thinking, not one part of it. Like, how long I've got. It's ridiculous to think that way in a position that I'm in, that's just not on the radar.

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"I understand what we need to achieve and where we need to be as a football club for the owners, what they expect, for the supporters as much as anything… there's not [much] more important for me than what they expect and what they want to see. I get all that.

"It's two or three games that we haven't had certain results and two or three games too many because I really hate losing. But that doesn't mean that the world caves in. In some minds, it does. It can't for us because we've got to perform, we've got to get wins and we've got a lot of games to plan for. That's exactly what we're doing."