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Ayden Heaven in action for England Under-20s (Photo by Nathan Stirk – The FA\/The FA via Getty Images)<\/p>\nThe young defender suffered an issue in the first minute of England Under 20s’ clash with SwitzerlandAyden Heaven in action for England Under-20s (Photo by Nathan Stirk – The FA\/The FA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Injury fears for Manchester United defender Ayden Heaven have been played down ahead of the upcoming clash with Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 19-year-old suffered a knock in the opening minute of England\u2019s Under-20s match against Switzerland on Friday. Heaven went down and required lengthy treatment before returning to action, but he was substituted at half-time, prompting concerns that he could face another spell on the sidelines.<\/p>\n Speaking after the game, England youth coach Ben Futcher said (h\/t BBC Sport<\/a>) the issue did not appear to be serious.<\/p>\n \u201cHe picked something up. I don\u2019t think it is too serious, but we will have to see how it settles down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Heaven joined United from Arsenal earlier this year and impressed when called upon during the club\u2019s injury crisis late last season.<\/p>\n However, injury cut short his run in the side, and this season he has struggled for minutes. Heaven started in the shock League Cup<\/a> defeat to Grimsby Town but has managed just three minutes of Premier League<\/a> action so far.<\/p>\n Given Ruben Amorim\u2019s preference for a three-man defence, opportunities could arise for the youngster as the campaign progresses. He faces stiff competition, though, with Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw also in contention for places.<\/p>\n United return to action at Anfield after the international break, with Amorim aiming to secure back-to-back wins for the first time since taking charge.<\/p>\n Liverpool, the defending champions, spent \u00a3450 million to strengthen their squad in the summer but head into the match on the back of three consecutive defeats \u2014 including late losses to Crystal Palace and Chelsea<\/a> in the Premier League.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Here at the Manchester Evening News, we\u2019re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester United coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don\u2019t miss out on the latest United news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a><\/strong> to subscribe.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a><\/strong> to be sent all the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And finally, if you\u2019d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Manchester is Red podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a><\/strong> and Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/strong>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young defender suffered an issue in the first minute of England Under 20s’ clash with SwitzerlandAyden Heaven…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":295251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[3898,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-295250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-manchester-united-fc","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115356823150332623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}