Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has today been issued a three-match ban, effective immediately, for an elbow on West Ham defender Winston Reid last weekend.
This means that Schweinsteiger will be unavailable for selection for Manchester United's upcoming fixtures against Bournemouth, Norwich, and Stoke.
While this would no doubt have been bad news on it's own, the coincidence of this suspension with Manchester United's current injury crisis makes for a truly bleak situation for Louis Van Gaal.
Chris Smalling and Matteo Darmian look set to miss the trip to Bournemouth through injury, although we are waiting for confirmation after both picked up injuries in Wolfsburg on Tuesday, to add to the absence of Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Ander Herrera, and Wayne Rooney.
This is the incident which lead to Schweinsteiger's suspension:
via r/soccer.
While it was a clear and deliberate elbow, it has surprised some that a three-match ban was handed out considering the referee appeared to see the incident and talk with both players involved, but the German can have no complaints.
While Manchester United have fared well in games that Schweinsteiger did not start, as can be seen by WhoScored.com's stat below, his experience will surely be missed in what could be a very inexperienced team over the next few games:
Manchester United: With/without Bastian Schweinsteiger starting in the PL this season #mufc pic.twitter.com/mzXC2Nw7YE
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) December 10, 2015
This was not what his manager needed, and Schweinsteiger will be the first to admit he's made a mistake that will hurt his team in the coming weeks.
via BBC Sport.
