Benjamin Sesko injury: Man Utd’s crisis deepens as Carrick wobbles

Manchester United have confirmed that Benjamin Sesko has withdrawn from the Slovenia squad because of a shin problem, the latest blow in a bruising start to the season for Michael Carrick and his players. The 23-year-old striker will not link up with his national team for the upcoming three-week international break, and the club has said he will undergo tests this week to establish how long he will be out.

The injury is not new. Sesko missed the end of last season with pain in his shin, then sat out the whole of pre-season before returning as a substitute against Hull City in United’s opening match of the 2026-27 Premier League campaign. He has scored twice in six appearances this term, but he struggled against Brighton & Hove Albion in the EFL Cup last week and was left out of the matchday squad altogether for Sunday’s trip to Fulham.

“Manchester United can confirm that Benjamin Sesko has withdrawn from the Slovenia squad ahead of the upcoming three-week international break,” a club statement said. “Sesko last appeared in our Carabao Cup tie with Brighton & Hove Albion, but was absent from the matchday squad for our most recent encounter with Fulham. Benjamin will undergo tests this week before defining his individual recovery plan.”

Carrick was careful not to put a timescale on the problem. “We’re not sure with Ben yet. He felt a bit of pain after the game, we’re assessing him,” he said. “At the moment, he definitely wasn’t ready for today, so I haven’t really got any more news to give you at this point. We’ll have to see what that brings.” United are hopeful that Sesko will be available against Tottenham Hotspur on October 10, though the club has made clear that nothing is settled. Since arriving from RB Leipzig last summer he has scored 14 goals and registered one assist in 38 appearances, with 12 goals and one assist coming in 34 Premier League matches.

The picture around him is no brighter. United needed a late Matheus Cunha leveller to salvage a 1-1 draw at Fulham, a game that turned on Lisandro Martinez’s own goal in the 63rd minute. Cunha was blunt about the second-half showing. “In the beginning of the second half, Fulham put in more energy than us and we cannot accept this,” he said. Carrick did not agree with that reading of the game. “I don’t, particularly,” the head coach said, before praising the way his side kept pushing for an equaliser.

There were, at least, two statistics for the club to cling to. United have had more touches in the opposition box than any other Premier League team this season, 182 of them, and they have seen their opponents have the fewest inside their own penalty area, only 92. Those figures came from Opta Analyst. It is thin consolation for a squad sitting 12th with five points from five matches, and Carrick knows it. “Mixed. Disappointed is the first one,” he said of the Fulham display. “We are not happy about not winning the game but there are things to take from this game, for sure. We don’t need to get carried away, all of a sudden, just because of today’s game.”

Gary Neville, the former United captain, has urged Carrick to change shape after the international break, arguing that Carlos Baleba should come into a three-man midfield. Baleba, who is yet to make his debut because of an ankle issue, was on the bench at Craven Cottage and is expected to feature against Tottenham. “There’s a question over the physicality of the team. Carlos Baleba’s definitely going to come in after the international break. He needs to come in because they need more force, more power, more aggression,” Neville said on the Gary Neville podcast. “They’re too nice and too easy to play against.” In his role as a Sky commentator he was harsher still, branding a spell of the Fulham performance “absolutely pathetic” and saying that he had “never seen such a lack of effort”.

Injuries are biting elsewhere in the squad. Marcus Rashford, who has been nursing a hip problem since the 2026 World Cup, and Kobbie Mainoo are both doubts for England’s Nations League camp, while Cole Palmer is also set to withdraw from Thomas Tuchel’s group. Carrick confirmed that Rashford came off late at Fulham “as he had a bit of an issue”, and Mainoo followed him in the 80th minute, with an unspecified problem understood to rule him out of the England training camp. England begin their campaign against Spain at Wembley on Saturday.

Carrick also had to absorb boos from a section of the away support when he took Mainoo off, sending on Mason Mount in his place. He insisted he took no offence. “There’s always going to be certain reactions when you’re making changes,” he said. “I understand. We’re chasing the game and everyone’s a little bit emotional.” On the wider mood he was just as measured. “It’s still a big season ahead,” he said. Anything less than a response at Tottenham Hotspur, followed three days later by a Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid, will only turn the volume up.