Alexis Sanchez has suffered a stop-start season at Manchester United so far, but should be fit to face Brighton this weekend.
After making his comeback in early January, the ex-Arsenal winger had to sit out of United’s win at Tottenham last time out.
A mix of thigh and hamstring problems have hampered the Chilean in recent weeks but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expects him to return on Saturday.
United welcome Brighton to Old Trafford as Solskjaer looks for his seventh straight win and the Norweigan has revealed all on Sanchez in the build-up.
He said: “Alexis has trained all week, so hopefully he comes through the session today and will be available.
“He is a player who loves to play football, it doesn’t matter who you are, you want to play football. And he’s been hindered by injury. I know all about injuries and how frustrating that can be and how eager you are to get back.
”Maybe in the Reading game [the FA Cup win on January 5] he should have told me at half-time, ‘I need to come off now’, because you know the 15-20 minutes he played in the second half, maybe that was too much for him. So that gave him a setback.
“So he’s chomping at the bit I have to say. He’s working hard in training and as I said to you before, his attitude in training has been fantastic. And he wants to play.
“So for me, I’m looking forward to seeing him, but I have loads of good players to choose from.”
United will be without imposing midfielder Marouane Fellaini against Brighton as he faces up to four weeks out with a calf injury.
Eric Bailly has completed his suspension and can return while fellow defenders Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo are stepping up their rehabilitation but won’t be back this weekend.
Solskjaer added: “Chris and Marcos just started running lightly so they’re not fit yet. Felli is the long-term one who is out. He’ll be out for a few weeks.
”That’s sad because there are ‘X factors’ in different players and we all know Felli’s ‘X factor’, but then again he’ll be working hard to get back for when all the big games are coming as well.
“There are not many issues [elsewhere]. I think there are small niggles as there always are at this time of the season.”
United take on Brighton at Old Trafford on Saturday, January 19 and commentary will be live on talkSPORT ahead of the kick-off at 3pm.
Man United provisional squad: De Gea, Romero, Grant, Dalot, Darmian, Valencia, Shaw, Young, Jones, Bailly, Lindelof, Smalling, Fred, Gomes, Garner, Matic, Pereira, Herrera, McTominay, Pogba, Lingard, Mata, Rashford, Martial, Lukaku, Sanchez.