Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim will look to hold onto Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui for as long as possible, delaying their departures to the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
The Red Devils are in the midst of a good run of form under Amorim, with Mbeumo and Amad particularly impressive, and have previous experience of holding onto players longer than the stipulated period of time per tournament regulations.
André Onana joined up with Cameroon only a day before their opening encounter of the last Africa Cup of Nations, and he ended up missing just one club game—an FA Cup third round tie with Newport County.
Whether or not United can pull that coup off again is unlikely, but Amorim confirmed in his Friday news conference that the plan is to prevent Mbeumo, Amad and Mazraoui from joining up with their national teams for the slated two weeks before their respective first games.
“We have the rules for when we have to release the players [but] we are trying to have the players a bit longer,” Amorim said. “It is not just in our hands. We will see. We will try to arrange something with the federations.”
