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Good news on the injury front! Not a sentence United have seen much this season. But Paddy McNair, taken off in the 91st minute on Saturday, is not injured. He was instead suffering from cramp, which Van Gaal ascribed to his recent workload.
It was cramp. I have to deal with that also. He's a youngster and then he was injured for four or five weeks and then he has to play 90 minutes. That's not always good but I had to.
McNair will therefore join up with the Northern Ireland squad ahead of their qualifier against Romania on Friday, when he may make his international debut. Speaking to MUTV before Saturday's, the central defender reflected on his sudden rise to prominence:
It's been a crazy couple of months. I was playing with the Under-21s two months ago, then all of a sudden I'm playing in front of 75,000 people at Old Trafford. It has happened so fast. Last year I think I played 11 games for the U21s so hopefully I'll be close to 11 for the first team by the end of the season.
State of this defence, he might get more than 11.