MANCHESTER (Sporting Alert) — Manchester United will check on midfielder Shinji Kagawa ahead of their English Premier League clash with Newcastle United on Saturday.
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Kagawa, the club says, is being suffering from a bug which affected him in midweek and manager David Moyes will wait until game time to see if the Japan international will recovery in time for the game.
“Shinji has had a sickness and has been unwell,” Moyes said on www.manutd.com. “I will see how he is tomorrow, we hope to have him available, but he wasn’t too good after the game.”
Manchester United is already without forward Wayne Rooney, who is out because of suspension, while it is still unclear as to whether or not Robin van Persie (groin) has recovered to play.
United were beaten 1-0 at Old Trafford by Everton in midweek and the is hoping for a quick turn around.
“It could be a bad time to face Newcastle, but they also had a defeat to Swansea,” he said. “They are coming to Old Trafford and we will make it as hard and as difficult for them as possible.”
Newcastle United is coming into this game after a defeat as well, after losing to Swansea City in midweek, but manager Alan Pardew, who was named boss of the month for November, is confident his team can return to winning ways against the struggling champions.
Forward Papiss Cisse (heel) will get a late fitness test before the game, while midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa (illness), could make a return on Saturday after missing the last game.
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Meanwhile, after seeing Everton bettering the hosts on Wednesday night, Pardew, although remaining cautious, believes his team, can break the long drought at Old Trafford in the league.
Newcastle will be going for its first win at the Red Devils since the 1971/72 season.
“I think there’ll be a reaction from Man United to their defeat and likewise from us so it’ll make for a game which is quite pressurised,” the boss said.
“Therefore we need to have calm heads in that game – and hopefully we can retain the ball better than we did at Swansea.
“They (Manchester United) had gone 12 games unbeaten up until that game so it’s not like there’s a crisis there.
“They’ve lost a game, which anybody can do in the Premiership at the moment, and their reaction is going to be a little bit larger than ours so I think there’s a bit of pressure on them.
“We’ve got to try and capitalise on that and make it difficult for them; if we can do that and get in the last period of the game we could try and reverse a statistic that isn’t very good of Newcastle winning at Man United.”
Last season United beat the Magpies 4-3 at Old Trafford and 3-0 on the road.
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Manchester United (from): De Gea, Lindegaard, Buttner, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Ferdinand, Jones, Rafael, Smalling, Varela, Vidic, Anderson, Cleverley, Fellaini, Fletcher, Giggs, Januzaj, Kagawa, Nani, Valencia, Young, Hernandez, Van Persie, Welbeck, Zaha.
Newcastle United (from): Alnwick, Elliot, Krul, Coloccini, Debuchy, Dummett, Good, Haidara, Santon, Streete, S Taylor, Williamson, Yanga-Mbiwa, Anita, Ben Arfa, Bigirimana, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Marveaux, Obertan, Sissoko, Tiote, Sa Ameobi, Sh Ameobi, Cisse, Gouffran, Remy.
Match Officials
Referee: Andre Marriner.
Assistants: P Kirkup, S Massey.
Fourth Official: N Swarbrick.
