Paris Saint Germain coach Thomas Tuchel has ruled out Edinson Cavani out of the game against Caen and he is also a doubt for their champions league clash against Manchester United on Wednesday. The German offered an update on the Uruguayan on Friday, per ESPN FC’s Jonathan Johnson. Cavani has been out of action since February 9 with a muscle injury.
“He will train with the squad for the 1st time later. He is unavailable in Caen. I was too optimistic — that was my fault.” With Edi, realistically, it will be very, very tight for United. It is absolutely normal – – he has worked a lot & we must wait. Tomorrow is a no, though.”
The striker’s absence has coincided with a metatarsal injury to Neymar, but despite missing the pair, PSG have continued to pick up results. They’ve won each of the five matches Cavani has missed, scoring 14 goals in the process and conceding just once. That included a 2-0 win over United at Old Trafford in the first leg of their last-16 tie, in which Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria made up for Cavani and Neymar’s absences.
It seems they may need to do so again when United visit the Parc des Princes for the return leg on Wednesday, but the Red Devils have injury problems of their own. Cavani has 22 goals in 26 matches in all competitions this season, so PSG would prefer to have him in their lineup against United if possible, but with the scoreline in their favour and their opponents likely to miss several first-team players, they have a good chance of progressing without him.
Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial fit for the encounter. England striker Rashford suffered an ankle injury early on during last weekend’s goalless draw with Liverpool , but in a game where three United players were injured before the break, somehow played the full 90 minutes. He was left on the bench at Crystal Palace – despite United being without nine senior first-team stars – but did come on for the final 13 minutes despite not being at 100 per cent. United’s injury problems have hardly dwindled in the two days since the 3-1 success at Selhurst Park, with Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Phil Jones, Nemanja Matic, Matteo Darmian and Antonio Valencia all still sidelined. Solskjaer revealed on Friday that Martial may be part of the squad depending on how he feels after the team’s final session.
“It’s the last session today but we’re not going to take any risks so maybe Anthony, but it might even be a few more days before he’s ready,” Solskjaer said. “So probably the squad will look similar to what it did on Wednesday. “Rashford (is fully fit). He said he still felt it Wednesday night so he’ll be ready, so I’ll probably start him.” United meet Paris Saint-Germain next week, trailing 2-0 from the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash.
Without the suspended Paul Pogba they face a mountainous task in Paris, but Solskjaer admits he’s thinking no further than Southampton. “Wednesday doesn’t come in mind whatsoever,” the Norwegian added “Saturday, 3 o’clock, Wednesday night in Paris, we’ve got so much time to get our recovery in. “It’s more about Saturday afternoon and see if everybody is available again. [We’re] 100 per cent focused on this one.”