Romelu Lukaku ready to play wherever needed amid Manchester United injury crisis
Romelu Lukaku is ready to play wherever he is needed for Manchester United as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer contends with a bizarre spate of injuries.
United made three enforced changes during the first half of Sunday’s goalless draw with Liverpool, as Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Jesse Lingard all had to depart early.
The trio all suffered muscle injuries while Marcus Rashford played on with an ankle problem. All four players are doubts for Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
Lukaku began the game partnering Rashford up front but switched out to the right wing following all the changes to United’s line-up.
Come Wednesday, he could be Solskjaer’s only option up front or he may have to fill in elsewhere for absent team-mates. The Belgian will be prepared, in any case.
“Left or right or up front it doesn’t matter to me,” Lukaku said. “Playing for this club is an honour and I just try to do my best in whichever position I play in.
“If it is on the right then I will try to create chances, which I did against Liverpool, and if it is up front then I will try to score goals.
“At the end of the day I just try and help my team-mates out and try win matches.
“As long as the manager wants to use me I will do my best to help the team out. We have a number of injuries.
“We have to stay positive, have that positive mentality. We are Manchester United and you have to go wherever we go and win.”
Lukaku hailed United’s mental strength for overcoming Mata, Herrera and Lingard’s injuries to hold Liverpool off and have the better of the second half.
“You always want to win these type of games but for us it was about being mentally strong having players injured,” he said. “We had to be resilient and score whatever type of way.
“You just have to adapt. We had players coming off the bench who were trying to help out the team.
“You have to make sure those coming on help out the team and that is what we tried and that is what we did. Credit to them who came in and did their job. We were resilient.”
