Fulham vs. Man United: Will Red Devils duo Carlos Baleba, Luke Shaw be fit for Premier League showdown?

By Matt Law | 18 Sep 2026 14:37, Last updated: 18 Sep 2026 14:57

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick has revealed that Carlos Baleba could make his debut for the Red Devils in Sunday's Premier League clash with Fulham.

Baleba has been sidelined since his arrival at Old Trafford due to an ankle injury that he sustained while representing Brighton & Hove Albion during pre-season.

However, the Cameroon international has been back in training ahead of Sunday's game at Craven Cottage, and Carrick has said that the midfielder could feature in London.

Luke Shaw, meanwhile, also has "a chance" of being fit; the left-back has been absent from the team's three games in all competitions due to a fitness issue.

"A chance on both of them. Not totally 100% on either. It is really short term [with Shaw] but it is just working towards the game," Carrick told reporters on Friday.

Patrick Dorgu, Harry Amass and Noussair Mazraoui have all had minutes at left-back in Shaw's absence, and the former would be the most likely to start in that area of the field at Craven Cottage if Shaw is unable to prove his fitness.

A start for Baleba is incredibly unlikely given the amount of time that he has been absent.

Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans are set to start in the middle of the midfield against Fulham, but Baleba could potentially feature off the bench.

Carrick has slammed the speculation surrounding his future ahead of the trip to London, but there is no question that Sunday's fixture is a huge game.

When asked what he had learnt about the squad off the back of successive defeats to Manchester City and Brighton & Hove Albion, Carrick said: "Always learning as a group, individually. It is not always going to be perfect or to plan. History tells you that you have to work through it.

"We have had a small period where it hasn't been what we want it to be. I was expecting it at some point. There is going to be a time where you don't get everything out of it. It is about staying focused and doing the right things.

"It is a week or two of results not going our way. Tiny margins. It can feel a lot bigger than it actually is. Winning games is the answer. Yeah [I'm confident we can get through this].

"We’ve got to put things in perspective, it’s not a catastrophe or a disaster, it's not the end of the world, we’ve lost a couple of games recently.

"We feel we’ve started and been in all the games we’ve played, if not being the better team at the start of games, we’re not having a real struggle all the time.

"We’ve done a lot of good things, the belief comes from that. The good things we’ve done get lose in the surrounding feeling but they don’t get lost by us."

Man United currently sit 13th in the Premier League table, three points ahead of 18th-placed Fulham.

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