Ruben Amorim confirms season over for injured Man Utd star

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has ruled Joshua Zirkzee out for the remainder of the season through injury.

The Dutchman started Sunday's 4-1 mauling at Newcastle United but collapsed to the turf at the beginning of the second half with an apparent hamstring injury.

Zirkzee was helped from the field by medical personnel and captain Bruno Fernandes before being replaced by the under-fire Rasmus Hojlund.

"He is out for the season," Amorim confirmed. "He will not play again this season, let's prepare him for the next one. It is tough, he was improving in every aspect of the game. It is tough for any player but he has to be ready to recover."

In other injury updates, Amorim continued: "Matthijs [De Ligt] will return. Ayden [Heaven] has a small setback. Jonny Evans is back in training but he is not back for this game. Amad, he is not ready for this month. But I hope to have him for this season."

The other significant talking point was confirmation from Amorim that Andre Onana will return in goal after being dropped from the squad that travelled to Newcastle. The Cameroon international was heavily criticised for making two errors in the 2-2 draw with Lyon in last week's first leg, but Altay Bayindir failed to then seize his opportunity after making a mistake of his own at St James' Park.

"We need to improve every position on the field; goalkeeper is the same," Amorim remarked, looking ahead to the game.

"If our team scores more goals and our strikers are better, we will defend better. Sometimes you have a season where you are underperforming. We are going to make that evaluation for any position in the squad."

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