Luke Shaw, Nemanja Matic, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku have all been included in the provisional Manchester United squad for the Premier League visit of Watford.
The quintet all withdrew from international duty over the last fortnight as just six first-team squad members represented their nations. David de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Eric Bailly, Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba were the only players who appeared for their senior national sides, while Diogo Dalot featured for Portugal Under-20s.
Sources close to Lukaku told the MEN in midweek the Belgian needed time to recover from a foot injury that ruled him out of United’s FA Cup defeat to Wolves two weeks ago, as well as Belgium’s European Championship qualifiers against Russia and Cyprus. Lukaku’s camp were reluctant to earmark the round-of-16 Champions League first leg with Barcelona on April 10 as a possible comeback fixture, since United travel to Wolves before then on Tuesday.
Lukaku only returned to United’s Carrington training complex on Friday, having undergone treatment in Belgium, but still checked in with the rest of his teammates at The Lowry Hotel on Friday night. Martial (knee), Shaw, Matic and Rashford (ankle) were also present. United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suggested certain players would have late fitness tests.
See the full squad here.