MANCHESTER, England — Ruben Amorim has revealed he still doesn’t know whether he will have Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui available to face Bournemouth on Monday.
The trio are set to travel to the Africa Cup of Nations later this month.
Amorim said the club are still in negotiations with the federations of Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Morocco about when they have to be released.
He’s hoping to get a final decision by Saturday at the latest.
FIFA have issued a statement insisting players must be released at least a week before each nation’s first game of the tournament — which kicks off with Morocco against Comoros on Dec. 21.
Mbeumo’s Cameroon and Amad’s Ivory Coast begin their campaigns on Dec. 24.
“We are still in conversation with the national teams,” Amorim told a news conference on Friday.
“The game is Monday. They are here, they are training and we are trying to prepare all the scenarios to prepare the game.
“It’s frustrating, but at the same time nobody knows who is going to play.
“So it’s a good thing I think. So we have players to cope with everything and that is something. With a long week you can see a lot of things and work on several things to prepare for the game and any situation.”
United will definitely be without defenders Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt against Bournemouth.
Benjamin Sesko, who has missed the last four games with a knee injury, could return but Amorim revealed the striker has been dealing with a bout of illness which has disrupted his comeback.
“Maguire is out, De Ligt is out, Ben we have to see,” Amorim said.
“We have to see if he’s available. He has some food poisoning but let’s wait. We still have two trainings [before the game].”
