Manchester United boss Michael Carrick admits he has no idea when Matthijs de Ligt will be fit to play again.
De Ligt was an ever-present in the team’s defence for the first 13 games of the season before he unexpectedly missed the home game with West Ham on 4 December.
At the time, head coach Ruben Amorim said it was a “small thing” and he expected to have the Dutchman back for the trip to Wolves four days later.
As it turned out, De Ligt never played for Amorim again. He is still to recover from his back injury and given he is missing this weekend’s game against Bournemouth, the 26-year-old will have been out of action for more than four months by the time Manchester United next play again, against Leeds at Old Trafford on 13 April.
Carrick would not speculate when asked if there was a possibility De Ligt might not be able to play again for the remainder of the campaign. However, he acknowledged the nature of the injury meant it was impossible to put a timescale on his return.
“It’s difficult to say, just because it’s taken that much time,” he said.
“With backs sometimes you think it’s all right and all of a sudden it’s not quite right.
“We’re just being patient and working through it. We’ll give him time and try to get him back as quickly as we can, but it’s really difficult to say.”
It had been anticipated De Ligt would be part of the Netherlands squad at this summer’s World Cup after being picked by national coach Ronald Koeman for qualifying matches in September and November.
Those hopes are now receding as De Ligt struggles to find a solution to his back issue, although Carrick opted not to engage in thoughts the former Ajax, Juventus and Bayern Munich player might have to undergo surgery.
“I don’t want to get into that at this stage,” he said.
“We’ll try and do whatever we can to help and we’re working through that now.
“I’m not trying to hide anything. He’s improving. It’s just not as quick as we all hope.”