Ahead of today’s clash against Aston Villa at Old Trafford, Manchester United manager Michael Carrick has provided an injury update on Carlos Baleba.

Injuries have heavily impacted Baleba’s time at Old Trafford so far, with his debut being delayed due to an injury he sustained prior to joining the club.

He went onto make his debut for the club behind-closed-doors last month before being handed his first start against Atletico Madrid.

Injury struck once again against Roma on Tuesday evening, however, with Baleba forced off after just 51 minutes.

Until now, it had remained unclear when the midfielder could be ready to return to action for Michael Carrick’s side.

The eventual date that he will return now appears to have narrowed, but is unclear, according to Carrick’s latest comments.

“With Carlos [Baleba], we don’t know exactly, but it’ll be a number of weeks,” the Manchester United manager said.

“It’s definitely not this week, and he won’t be back at any point over the international break. It’ll be a little bit longer than that.”

Manchester United will face Liverpool after returning from the international break before clashing with Sporting CP and Brentford.

Each fixtures represents tough tests and challenges that Michael Carrick may look towards his entire squad for.

With Baleba missing due to injury, the manager could be forced to consider alternatives. Those include Andrey Santos and Kobbie Mainoo, alongside Tyler Fletcher.

Carrick’s plan remains unclear, although his actions today will provide supporters with a hint of what he plans to do without Carlos Baleba in the coming weeks.

The international break could provide a small relief to allow Baleba to recover but, even with that, it is likely Michael Carrick will be forced to play a hand.

It is the quality of that hand that could be so pivotal in dictating his future at the club.