Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has admitted that he may have to field a makeshift defence against Sunderland this weekend due to lack of options at the back.

Injuries to Marcos Rojo, Paddy McNair and Luke Shaw have left the Red Devils backline depleted, although Phil Jones returned from a lengthy lay-off to take a place on the bench in the League Cup victory over Ipswich Town.

Chris Smalling and left-footed player Daley Blind have been the Dutch boss's first-choice centre-back pairing for most of the season so far, but Van Gaal admits that he will have to make the best of a bad situation when the club return to league action.

"The left-footed players, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo, are injured, so I have a problem," he told reporters. "I have changed every player except a left-footed player so Daley Blind has played all the minutes.

"We have to spare some players, but I cannot spare Blind because all the left-footed players are injured. Smalling had also played all the minutes and because of that I substituted him and brought Jones in.

"It is not so easy to do that, but I asked [Jones] after the game if he felt fit and he said he did. He could easily have played more minutes so that's a good signal."

United are second in the Premier League table ahead of the visit of bottom side Sunderland to Old Trafford on Saturday.