Man Utd midfielder Bruno Fernandes is going to be out for “a while” after he came off injured in their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday.

The Red Devils captain was forced off at half-time against the Villans with Lisandro Martinez replacing the Portugal international.

Man Utdwould have used Kobbie Mainoo, who has been desperate for starts, but the England international is also likely to be unavailable for their Boxing Day clash against Newcastle.

Fernandes has missed just two games through injury or illness in his six-year stint at Old Trafford but Amorim’s injury update did not seem promising after the match at Villa Park.

Speaking to reporters, Amorim said: “It is really strange. It’s a soft tissue, I think he’s going to lose some games, I don’t know for sure. Let’s see. I think it’s going to be a while. He is a guy who is always fit so he might recover quite well.”

The injuries are now piling up for Man Utd, while Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and?Noussair Mazraoui are all on Africa Cup of Nations duty, with Amorim putting a number of youngsters on the bench to face Aston Villa.

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On the injury predicament, Amorim added: “I will see what we are going to do. I think?Kobbie Mainoo?is out, Bruno is out.

“So we will see and we are going to find solutions. No excuses. We need to win the next game. We will try to win the next one.

“I remember in this moment last year, we had the same issue. So when you have that experience, maybe it looks not so bad.

“It could be worse, but you have that feeling that nobody’s going to die.

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“We know that we are going to suffer without all these players, but with our fans, we’ll try to arrange something to win the next game.”

On trusting the academy, Amorim continued:?“I am a manager for six years and even Sporting is all about the academy, so it’s about the history. Every manager wants to bring players through from the academy and not spend money because this gives value to the manager.

“I just want to win and want to be certain that the players that come in from the academy are not going to suffer too much. I’m just trying to help the club, it doesn’t matter if it’s from the academy or abroad.”

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