Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester United absence 'believable' but Edinson Cavani branded a 'joke'

Manchester United duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani were both absent from their side's derby defeat on Sunday, a topic that was high on the agenda on the latest edition of the Manchester Evening News' Manchester is Red podcast.

Both players were ruled out of the clash at the Etihad through injury. Ralf Rangnick told the press that Ronaldo was struggling with his hip flexor and Cavani was 'still not ready' after suffering a groin injury.

Speaking to Rich Fay and Tyrone Marshall, Samuel Luckhurst took a look at the respective injuries in more detail. He said: "The talk after the team was confirmed was just about the absences mainly.

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"It was a little bit peculiar that Sky put a lot of the focus on Ronaldo, whose injury you can fully well believe. There was some social media posts out there that suggested he had been dropped altogether which you just took with a shovel of salt.

"I don't think they have ever dropped him completely and put Hannibal Mejbri in the squad. I think that his injury is believable.

"When you two had been to Carrington and saw that Cavani was available, I said immediately to my dad, 'he won't be in the squad on Sunday'. He is a joke. They should just pay up his contract and let him go back to Uruguay.

"He does not want to be there. He has missed 23 matches out of 38 this season. It is happening like it did at this stage last season - he was crying off hurt, barely playing and did not play at all in the second half of February.

"You can be certain that if Uruguay have games this month, he will be in Uruguay and he will be magically fit for that."

You can listen to the rest of the Manchester is