Herrera, Mata, Firmino and Lingard all taken off injured in first half

Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Roberto Firmino and Jesse Lingard were all forced off injured in the first half of Sunday’s Premier League clash between Manchester United and Liverpool.

United had already lost Nemanja Matic to injury in the build-up to the match at Old Trafford, with Scott McTominay chosen to replace him, and their options were further depleted early on.

Herrera went down off the ball after seemingly suffering an innocuous hamstring problem, with Andreas Pereira brought on for him in the 21st minute.

Four minutes later, Mata followed Herrera off the pitch with an apparent hamstring issue, seeing Lingard – deemed not fit enough pre-match to play the whole game – take his place.

Firmino then went the same way, a rolled ankle forcing him off with just over 30 minutes played, making it the first match since December 2017 to see three substitutions in the first half.

We’re forced into our third and final change as @Alexis_Sanchez comes on for @JesseLingard. #MUFC #MUNLIV pic.twitter.com/qtCoqgisFl

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 24, 2019

Lingard became the fourth to depart just before the break, appearing to also injure his hamstring when trying to take on Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.

As such, United are the first team since Newcastle United in January 2015 to use all of their substitutes in the first half of a match.