Gary Neville has raised concerns about Brian Mbeumo’s potential injury after observing him ‘shaking his head’ and talking to Diogo Dalot as he was substituted during Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Benjamin Sesco, 26, was brought on as a substitute and scored the third goal of the game to keep United’s progress alive.
Mbeumo has featured as a substitute in each of United’s last three games. However, this time he appeared to be limping as he left the pitch. The forward appeared to have a brief conversation with Dalot as he left the pitch. Neville noticed this exchange with a colleague while providing co-commentary of a match on Sky Sports. Neville asked: “Is he injured? Mbeumo, is he limping? As he walked away, he was shaking his head and was looking at one of the United players as if he was carrying something.”
Mbeumo’s attitude is sure to cause concern for United and manager Michael Carrick. The forward has been one of United’s standout players this season but has failed to find the back of the net in their last five Premier League games.
United were 2-1 up at this point and Mbeumo was substituted five minutes after Matheus Cunha restored the lead to the home side. Casemiro gave the hosts an advantage early in the second half, with Ross Barkley scoring the equalizer for Villa in controversial circumstances, but Amadou Onana narrowly escaped a VAR call against him.
Sesco scored United’s third and winning goal just five minutes after replacing Mbeumo. From that moment on, they controlled the game and Manuel Ugarte came on for Casemiro towards the end.
Mbeumo has played in every game under Carrick, with his first game in charge against Manchester City coinciding with the Cameroonian’s return from the African Cup of Nations. Despite this, he withdrew from all but one of those matches.
Mbeumo finally played the full 90 minutes against West Ham United, assisting Sesco’s equalizer in the 96th minute. The pair combined again to score the only goal in United’s 1-0 win over Everton, but Nosair Mazraoui staggered off as a substitute seven minutes later.
This called into question his suitability for the game against Crystal Palace, but he continued to feature for 85 minutes until Zirksee was brought on. Carrick made the same substitution in the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United.
The next game will be played on Friday night, with a shorter break than usual before the trip to Bournemouth. Mbemo may have had doubts about the encounter at an early stage.
However, this will be the last match before the international break, and United will not play again until April 13th. So if Mbeumo misses the South Coast, he will have two weeks to recover before Carrick calls him back up.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s win put United in a firm position to qualify for the Champions League. Carrick’s team currently occupy comfortable third place and, importantly, hold a three-point lead over fifth place.
