Man Utd to block Bruno Fernandes from playing for Portugal

Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has hinted that the club will prevent Bruno Fernandes from joining up with Portugal, for the first of their World Cup qualifying matches later this month.

Under current government COVID-19 restrictions, Premier League players involved in games played in countries under the UK’s travel red list, will be required to quarantine for 10 days in a government-approved hotel on their return.

Fernandes would have been a shoo-in to be called up ahead of Portugal’s Group A clashes with Azerbaijan (Lisbon), Serbia (Belgrade) and Luxembourg (Luxembourg) in normal circumstances.

But as Portugal has been placed on the red list, the Red Devils are reluctant to release their talisman and Solskjaer said it would be a “hard call” to allow him to leave.

Solskjaer told reporters: “Well we’ve not sat down and made a proper call on that one but it doesn’t make sense if you lose your player for ten days isolation, of course it doesn’t.

“We’re the ones paying the players and from what I understand, FIFA have given the rules that [players] don’t have to be released.

“So I would think that’s going to be a hard call to make to let them go and play in red list countries, yeah.”