SPORT: Football
Cristiano Ronaldo could MISS today’s Manchester derby after missing the team hotel last night.

The Por­tuguese super­star was absent as Ralf Rang­nick and 21 play­ers met at the Lowry Hotel for their pre-match routine.

Edin­son Cavani, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw were also miss­ing as Unit­ed play­ers entered the plush Man­ches­ter city cen­ter hotel to pre­pare for Sun­day’s Pre­mier League clash with City.

Ronal­do was seen tak­ing part in a full train­ing ses­sion on Wednes­day.
The Por­tuguese super­star is report­ed­ly injury-free in the ses­sions since then.

And Unit­ed fans will be pray­ing he can line up in the unmiss­able der­by show­down at the Etihad.

All eyes will now be on Unit­ed’s squad sheet which will be released an hour before kick-off at 4.30pm.

If Ronal­do and Cavani are both missed for the match against Pep Guardi­o­la’s cham­pi­ons, Unit­ed will face a selec­tion dilemma.

Mar­cus Rash­ford, who has played as a winger this sea­son, may have to line up as a striker.

This would like­ly see Antho­ny Elan­ga join Jadon San­cho on the flanks, leav­ing Unit­ed run­ning out of attack­ing options from the bench.

Eric Bail­ly is back in the team after an injury, but Vic­tor Lin­de­lof would be the man to replace Varane.

As for Shaw, Unit­ed have two options in Alex Telles and Dio­go Dalot.

Man Utd squad con­firmed at Lowry Hotel: De Gea, Hen­der­son, Heaton, Dalot, Wan-Bis­sa­ka, Jones, Maguire, Bail­ly, Lin­de­lof, Telles, Mat­ic, McTom­i­nay, Fred, Pog­ba, Mejbri, Lin­gard, Mata, Fer­nan­des, San­cho, Elan­ga , Rachford.