It’s fair to say Manchester United’s 1-0 win in St Etienne came at a heavy cost.
Jose Mourinho will have been delighted with the way his players killed the tie off, already carrying a 3-0 lead from the first leg into the game.
However, the Portuguese may be questioning his decision to field such a strong side against the Ligue 1 outfit.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the winner on the night, but had to be replaced by Marcus Rashford in the first half, limping off with what looked like a hamstring injury.
Michael Carrick also went off injured later on, but it’s unlikely the former England international would have played in the EFL Cup final on Sunday anyway as he rarely plays twice in one week.
As for Mkhitaryan, though, he could potentially be a big loss for the trip to Wembley.
Southampton can’t make any plans around his absence just yet, as it hasn’t been confirmed he’s out of the final.
The Armenian did give us some insight into how serious the knock was with a tweet, but it still didn’t give all that much away.
Back in the country where I spent my childhood. So happy to have scored, but sad to have left the pitch that early. Fingers crossed #mufc pic.twitter.com/nDXczXCoIH
— Henrikh Mkhitaryan (@HenrikhMkh) February 22, 2017
“Fingers crossed” suggests there is some chance of him featuring against the Saints, and Mourinho will be praying that he can.
Wayne Rooney would ordinarily be able to fill in for Mkhitaryan, but he has only just returned to training himself.
And with six goals for United so far this season, Mkhi was bound to play a big role in their first chance of silverware.
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