Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says Chris Smalling and Tim Fosu-Mensah have recovered from their respective injuries and are available for tomorrow's game against Leicester City.
But the 26-year-old Englishman will probably start on the bench having failed to play any of the pre-season friendlies.
"They [Chris Smalling and Tim Fosu-Mensah] are fine now," Mourinho told reporters.
"They have recovered and they are training with the group as normal, so they are fine. Everybody needs minutes - that is the reality. We had so little time to play and Smalling is a player who has not even played one minute, but it is a little bit the same for everyone."
The Portuguese also admitted that it is not easy to prepare a new season when key players arrive late due to international duty.
"One thing is to start five weeks ago like some of them and another thing is to start one week ago, it is completely different," he added.
"But with the way we work we try to bring them on as fast as we can. I won't say to top form but to a level where they are ready to compete.
"That is the reality of modern football, especially when you are a team with a lot of players that go to the Euros and the Copa America. They [Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Matteo Darmian, Marouane Fellaini, Morgan Schneiderlin and Anthony Martial] come later, they don't have enough holiday and we have to make them ready for the competition in a short period of time.
"It is hard but this is what we have and complaining or crying is not the way to do it. The way to do is to work hard, like they are doing all the time."
