Eric Bailly may need surgery on an ankle injury that Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has now confirmed is “serious”.
The centre-back has missed eight consecutive matches and last featured for United in the 1-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea on November 5.
Bailly sustained the problem on international duty and Mourinho could not say whether or not he might miss the rest of the season.
“Today, I played Chris Smalling and Phil Jones and we had Victor Lindelof and Daley Blind on the bench. Marcos Rojo was injured against Manchester City but nothing really big.
“During the whole season, we’ve had problems with central defenders but, because the number is four or five, we manage always to have players available.
“Chris Smalling is playing amazingly well for seven or eight matches in a row maybe, so we are fine.”