Roy Keane and Patrice Evra react as Manchester United face January transfer scramble for a striker
Roy Keane and Patrice Evra have predicted tough times ahead for Manchester United as Marcus Rashford's injury setback leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scrambling in the January transfer window.
Rashford is facing at least six weeks on the sidelines with a stress fracture of the back. The 22-year-old picked up the injury after being introduced as a second-half substitute in the midweek FA Cup third-round replay win over Wolves.
The England international was ruled out of United's trip to Liverpool on Sunday, and the Red Devils missed his goalscoring prowess as they went down 2-0 at Anfield.
Solskjaer confirmed after the game that United will look at a "short-term" solution until the summer, suggesting that he will be in the market to sign a striker on loan - but added that he was not 'desperate' to bring in a player this month.
United have already missed out on their top target in attack after passing up the chance to sign Erling Braut Haaland from RB Salzburg due to concerns over the structure of the deal - but the 19-year-old striker showed United what they are missing with a hat-trick on his Borussia Dortmund debut on Saturday.
Following confirmation from Solskjaer that Rashford will spend weeks - and possibly months - on the sidelines, former United captain Keane told Sky Sports: "It’s bad news on the back of a bad result. Rashford has been a brilliant player for United and I’m always intrigued when teams are talking about signing strikers.
"Where do they think they are going to get strikers in January? There aren't many top strikers out there.
"They are having a difficult spell, they will have to get through it but that’s a big blow."
Former United left-back Evra believes the club's current struggles are a direct result of failing to sign replacements for Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez, who have both joined Inter Milan.
"Even before that when Lukaku and Sanchez left, we didn’t replace them," Evra said. "So I’m not waiting for the injury to Marcus to say: 'Buy now another striker'.
"We should have done that months ago. I’m not so okay with the board right now but I don’t know... I’m a little worried."
After United's defeat, Solskjaer elaborated on Rashford's injury and what it means for the Red Devils' transfer plans: "He's suffered a bad injury, it's a stress fracture.
"It happened against Wolverhampton and it is not something that has happened before. I'm looking at Marcus to be out for a while. He won't be back, I'm not a doctor so I don't know exactly, but we are looking at several weeks and then some rehab after that probably.
"We've had many injuries to big players this season, it's just an unfortunate position that we are in. The window is open and it might be that we look at something for the short term.
"We are not desperately looking. We are looking at numbers and if the right one is there for us then something might be possible."
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