Manchester United handed major double injury boost before Crystal Palace clash

Manchester United have been handed a key double injury boost ahead of Saturday’s Premier League trip to Crystal Palace.

Erik ten Hag’s side head to Selhurst Park this weekend with renewed confidence having achieved back-to-back victories for the first time this season in order to ease the latest pressure on the manager that had built once again after consecutive damaging defeats at the hands of Brighton and fierce rivals Liverpool.

United cruised to a 3-0 victory over newly-promoted Southampton last weekend, before following that up with a 7-0 thrashing of third-tier Barnsley at Old Trafford to reach the Carabao Cup fourth round - their biggest-ever win in the competition and the most emphatic of Ten Hag’s tenure to date, with Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Christian Eriksen all notching braces to go along with Antony’s penalty.

Those emphatic triumphs were achieved despite a lengthy list of absentees that has seen Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount, Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia, Victor Lindelof and Leny Yoro all on the sidelines early in the season.

But at least two of that number could now make their respective returns against Palace on Saturday evening, with United confirming on Wednesday that both Hojlund and Mount have now resumed training at Carrington in the aftermath of the demolition of Barnsley.

Danish striker Hojlund has yet to feature this season after suffering a hamstring issue during United’s pre-season friendly defeat by Arsenal in Los Angeles in July - the same match in which £58.9million summer signing Yoro also sustained a foot injury that required surgery and ruled him out for approximately three months.

Hojlund was initially expected to miss around six weeks, with the 21-year-old having been stepping up his recovery of late before training on Wednesday.

Mount has yet to impress at United since joining from Chelsea in a £55m deal last summer, struggling with injury issues and limited to only 23 total appearances so far.

He started the first three games of the season in the Community Shield against Manchester City at Wembley and the Premier League meetings with Fulham and Brighton, but was taken off at half-time on the south coast after suffering a hamstring injury.

Mount later took to social media to confirm that he had picked up a “minor muscle issue” and would miss a few games.

However, like Hojlund he is now back in training with Ten Hag’s selection options starting to look much healthier for the trip to face a Palace team who remain winless in the top-flight so far this season.