A big loss no doubt but I'm hoping his early retirement from the match prevented a slight pull from becoming a bad pull or worse, a tear. I doubt it will be the latter. A few weeks at least though.
But in the mean time, with Matic (or occasionally Carrick/Herrera) protecting the otherwise pretty strong back-four partnerships, we have plenty in reserve. Enoiugh I believe to give any team, including the other top 5 teams a very good run for their money, beat most of them most days, and rarely lose with any of the permutations we choose (see below).
I'm not suggesting our CB's are not fallible but with Matic we are much improved over last year at the back (when we conceded very little) and especially if Young can maintain his Tuesday night standard. Shaw is near it seems to a come-back for the first team and hopefully he plays well when he does!
We do have a strong squad filled with both specialists AND players flexibility in terms of the positions they are comfortable and more than competent in.
Every team is going to suffer with injuries as the season progresses, especially those playing in tough, European match-ups but our depth (and maybe City's) will prevail!
And in Mou I trust ...
DDG
Valencia Jones Baily Blind
(Darmian) (Smalling) (Lindelof) (Shaw)
(Young)
Matic
(Carrick or Herrera)
Mata Fellaini
(Lingard) (Herrera)
(Young)
Mhiki Lukaku Rashford
(Mata) (Rashford) (Martial)
Plus we have Rojo & Ibra to come back as well as a couple of youngsters I haven't mentioned.
This will be a test ... one we need to pass!