Bailly leaves Manchester United with defensive crisis after hamstring injury

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's woes at Manchester United have deepened after watching defender Eric Bailly hobble off while on international duty with the Ivory Coast.

The central defender had to be substituted in the 70th minute and left the field clutching at his hamstring during the friendly with Belgium.

It is yet another blow for United's Norweigian boss, who now has a defensive crisis to contend with following the shock 6-1 defeat by Tottenham at Old Trafford last Sunday.

Eric Bailly had started that game ahead of Victor Lindelof, as Solskjaer persisted with his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, and the Swede is available to slot back in after the international break, should Bailly's injury be confirmed to be as serious as first feared.

However, following the sale of Chris Smalling to Roma, Solskjaer has been left short of trusted options as back-up for Lindelof and captain Harry Maguire.

Both Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo were left out of United's Champions League squad this week, indicating that they are not viable options in the opinion of their manager.

Scott McTominay can fill in at centre-back, having done so on the right-hand side of a back three for Scotland during their penalty-shootout victory over Israel in their Euro 2020 play-off semi-final. However, this is far from the Scot's natural position.

Another option is the returning Axel Tuanzebe, who is back in training following a long spell out himself through injury. The 22-year-old has not pulled on a United shirt since their Carabao Cup quarter-final with Colchester United last December.

The injury caps off a tough week for Bailly on a personal level, too, following his display against Jose Mourinho's Spurs.

While the entire United squad came in for criticism, the 26-year-old was singled out by an irate Patrice Evra on Sky Sports for his first-half performance.

The former defender said: 'Bailly gets the chance to play instead of Lindelof and he made that mistake, so don't cry after when you don't play. It's so naive.'

Bailly has had his fair share of injury problems since joining United from Villarreal in 2016.

Serious knee and ankle problems have limited him to just 56 league appearances in four years with the club, although the player was given limited playing time last season, despite having returned from injury in January for the Under 23s.