Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund was partly substituted against West Ham as he was ill in the week. Hojlund was anaemic in United's 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium and he has now gone 14 games without scoring in the Premier League.
United manager Erik ten Hag stressed he had to protect Hojlund as they host Aston Villa on Boxing Day and head to Nottingham Forest on December 30.
Hojlund, 20, has scored five times for United this season and all of them came in Champions League defeats to Bayern Munich, Galatasaray and Copenhagen.
The Denmark international is without a goal since United lost to Copenhagen on November 8. ALSO READ: United player ratings vs West Ham ALSO READ: United's £158.3m mistakes cost them vs West Ham "I think he's a very strong character and he can deal with the stress," Ten Hag said. "I took him off as he was ill during the week, so a little bit lack of power, so in that sense I protected him. "We have to play two more games this week but we can't feel sorry for ourselves, no one.