confirmed that Phil Jones will be out for a month
with a torn hamstring.
Jones suffered the injury during England's 2-0 win
in Switzerland in midweek and his absence could
pave the way for new signing Marcos Rojo to make
his United debut against Queens Park Rangers this
weekend.
"Phil has a torn hamstring," Van Gaal said. "He is
maybe out for three weeks or a month."
Ashley Young, meanwhile, has suffered an injury in
training and is also likely to be missing from the
squad that tackles QPR in the Sky Live game on
Sunday afternoon.
Van Gaal said: "The situation has not improved
much because while there are players coming back,
there are also players who have got injured in the
last week like, for example, Jones and Ashley
Young. So it's more or less the same situation and
that's not a very positive one."
On the plus side, Ander Herrera and Rafael both
came through a reserve match in midweek and
could be in contention for a return while England
left-back Luke Shaw has recovered from a
hamstring injury that kept him out of the first three
league matches.
"I think Herrera and Shaw are fit enough to play,"
Van Gaal said. "There is always a risk when you
bring players back in for their first game after
injury. Therefore, we let them play in a game for the
reserves against Bury and they played 60 minutes
and they played well. I think they can play now."
Despite picking up two points from nine in the
league, and suffering a humbling Capital One Cup
defeat at MK Dons, Van Gaal is optimistic he can
achieve a top-three finish.
"I don't think it's an unreasonable target," Van Gaal
said. "That it shall be difficult? That is another
question but a club such as Manchester United has
to always have a target.
"Within the top three, I think is logical perhaps
because Manchester United wants to be in the
Champions League."
Watch Manchester United v Queens Park
Rangers live this weekend. Super Sunday
coverage starts at 3:30pm, Sky Sports 1HD.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.