Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui are expected to complete transfers to Manchester United today.
The pair are both undergoing medicals ahead of a switch from Bayern Munich.
It will represent a tremendous boost for United’s defence, which has been decimated in recent times.
Raphael Varane left at the end of last season and his replacement, Leny Yoro, fractured a metatarsal in a pre-season friendly, ruling him out until November.
Meanwhile Luke Shaw is still battling with persistent injury problems and was again not available for the Red Devils in Saturday’s Community Shield.
His understudy, Tyrell Malacia, has not kicked a ball since the 2022/23 season and is still several weeks away from match fitness.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, meanwhile, is expected to complete a transfer to West Ham today.
Harry Maguire is also touch and go for Friday’s Premier League opener against Fulham after picking up a knock on Saturday, while Victor Lindelof missed that game and is doubtful for the next match.
This leaves Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez and 36-year-old Jonny Evans as the only fit senior defenders going into the new season.
United fans are therefore immediately wondering about the match fitness of the incoming pair and questioning whether they could be available for Friday’s game if the deals go through in time.
The fact is that both will be well short of fitness. Neither has had much of a pre-season.
De Ligt was in the Netherlands squad for Euro 24 but did not play a minute of the tournament. The last time he saw action was on June 6th, playing 72 minutes for the Dutch against Canada.
Mazraoui also has had limited game time. He played 24 minutes from the bench in a friendly against Düren on July 24th and 22 minutes against Spurs on 3rd August.
Both were unused subs against Spurs this Saturday.
United will no doubt arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly between now and Friday to get some minutes in both players’ legs, but in truth it seems unlikely either will be deemed able to start the game.
This leaves manager Erik ten Hag sweating on the fitness of Maguire, Lindelof and Shaw, with the new boys ideally coming on for 30 minutes or so in the second half.
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