Manchester United will have the honours of opening the 2024-25 Premier League season when they welcome Fulham to Old Trafford on Friday night in the new campaign’s curtain-raiser.
The 13-time Premier League winners have been busy in the summer transfer market so far with numerous outgoings and four new signings, with expectations for more business to be done.
Ahead of Friday’s opener, United manager Erik Ten Hag says the club’s latest additions—Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, who both joined from Bayern Munich on Tuesday—will be part of the squad to face Fulham.
“They will be in the squad,” Ten Hag said in his pre-match conference on Thursday, when asked about the availability of the duo for the Premier League opener.
De Ligt and Mazraoui have trained with the rest of their new United teammates over the last few days at Carrington as they ramp up preparations for the Cottagers’ visit in their first home game of the season, and they are both in line to make their Unted debuts.
Ten Hag also added that former club captain and England international Harry Maguire will be available for the match after playing about 58 minutes in their Community Shield defeat to Manchester City last weekend before being replaced by Uruguayan forward Facundo Pellestri.
The Dutchman also confirmed that the Red Devils will be without first-choice left back Luke Shaw, who will be on the sidelines for the next few weeks after suffering another calf injury. However, he added that he doesn’t expect Shaw to be out for so long.
“I think he will return in the short term, it doesn’t take long,” Ten Hag said. “We are looking forward of course, Luke Shaw is a very important player for our team.
“He is massively important so we want to get him back as soon as possible but we can’t force this process.”
Shaw’s injury will see him join the trio of Rasmus Hojlund, Tyrell Malacia, and new signing Leny Yoro on the sidelines. With United not having their full squad, an occurrence that was so frequent last season, Ten Hag added that he prefers to focus on the players available to face Fulham.
“The issues are there, but it’s not about the players who are not available,” the former Ajax boss added. “Like I said last season, it’s about the players who are available and we have a good group.
“We can make a strong selection, we can put out a strong team, so we will do.”
Fulham have so far not revealed any news of an injury in their squad, and Marco Silva could give debuts to any of their summer signings in Jorge Cuenca, Ryan Sessegnon, and Emile Smith Rowe.
