Man United boss Erik ten Hag 'considering' surprise selection amid injury crisis

Manchester United's manager Erik ten Hag is considering deploying Jonny Evans as an emergency left-back due to the club's current defensive injury crisis. With five defenders unavailable for Saturday's match against Brentford, Ten Hag is under pressure to avoid a third consecutive Premier League defeat at Old Trafford.

The absentees include left-backs Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia, centre-backs Harry Maguire, Leny Yoro and right-back Noussair Mazraoui. With no recognised left-back available this season, Ten Hag has previously played Diogo Dalot in that position and used £17million summer signing Mazraoui at right-back.

However, with Mazraoui now out for several weeks following a heart procedure, Ten Hag faces another defensive dilemma. The Mirror reports that one option could be to play Evans, who was man of the match in United's 0-0 draw at Aston Villa before the international break, at left-back and move Dalot back to his preferred right-back position.

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Alternatively, if Shaw is unfit to face Brentford, Lisandro Martinez could be moved to left-back, allowing Evans and Matthijs De Ligt to form the central defence.

Victor Lindelof made a return to the United line-up at Villa, taking over from Mazraoui as right-back. He could maintain this position for the upcoming Brentford match, allowing Dalot to continue at left-back and Evans to stay in central defence with either De Ligt or Martinez,

Another option that Ten Hag utilised during United's 7-0 thrashing of Barnsley in the League Cup last month is to play 20 year-old