Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hopes to welcome FIVE key players from injury before vital week

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer watched Manchester United start a great week by taking a big step towards Champions League qualification, then revealed that up to five of their stars are ready to return to action.

United’s 1-0 win over West Ham, fifth at Old Trafford, on Sunday created a nine-point gap between the two clubs and went a long way to securing a top-four result.

Solskjaer’s team is now turning their attention to Thursday’s Europa League round of 16 second leg against AC Milan at San Siro and next weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals in Leicester ahead of the International break, with the United manager hoping that Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani, David de Gea, Anthony Martial and Donny van de Beek will be available.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set to receive back five key first-team stars through injury next week

Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek (from left to right) are three who could return

Pogba has missed the last 10 games with a thigh injury, Cavani and Van de Beek have had muscle problems, De Gea will return to training on Monday after isolating himself after paternity leave in Spain, and Martial missed Sunday’s victory. for a hip injury.

“In terms of injuries, I hope we have four or five players for that match (Milan),” Solskjaer said.

Edinson and Anthony are very likely in good shape, hopefully Donny too. Paul could even make the trip and David is back from isolation. That is more numbers.

Anthony Martial (left) and David de Gea are expected to return in a crucial week for United

“You could see that today we even had two goalkeepers on the bench, so we need them back.”

Looking ahead to what will be a key week in United’s season, Solskjaer added: ‘We want to improve last season, reach a final and move up the table.

‘This week was always going to be massive. We are starting to build some momentum in the league and we are opening the gap further with West Ham, which is important to us. “

The match was resolved with an own goal in the 53rd minute by Craig Dawson after United struggled to knock down their opponents.

Manchester United beat West Ham 1-0 on Sunday thanks to Craig Dawson’s own goal

“As expected, they will always make it difficult for you,” Solskjaer said.

“We could have been more comfortable towards the end as we had some decent chances to finish it off. We like to make it difficult for ourselves.

“In the first 15 minutes we gave the ball away every time we attacked. You don’t have to open up stupidly because you know they are a threat on the counter, so we stayed calm and organized.

“We created great opportunities, but the final pass or shot was not good enough. It could have been two or three easily. But then it could have ended up on our network in the end as they are a threat. ”

United take on AC Milan in the Europa League this week before taking on Leicester City in the FA Cup

West Ham lacked ambition until it fell behind, and coach David Moyes admitted his tactics didn’t work out as planned.

‘The way we set up maybe it didn’t quite work out. We changed it a bit at halftime and again later, ‘he said.

We are upset. I’m not happy I lost because I felt like we had a chance to come here and put on a show. I don’t enjoy losing 1-0, which shows how far we’ve come. ‘