Antony's Manchester United absence explained as Gary Neville voices his concerns

Antony’s Manchester United absence has been explained by manager Erik ten Hag after his side’s win over Bournemouth on Tuesday night.

Brazilian winger Antony arrived in the summer from Ajax for a huge fee and is yet to justify his price tag despite some encouraging cameos.

Antony was left out of the squad for United’s match against the Cherries on Tuesday night, which turned out to be a comfortable 3-0 victory thanks to goals from Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford.

After the match, manager Ten Hag stated that Antony was injured and therefore left out of the squad.

He simply said: “He's injured.” Ten Hag did not go into any further details about the injury.

Former United defender Gary Neville has sent out a strong message to Antony that he has a lot to do before he justifies his huge price tag.

After Neville questioned Chelsea’s potential big-money move for Benfica midfielder Enzo Fernandez, the former full-back was quizzed on United’s big spending.

Neville tweeted: “Agree with Anthony (he’s a lot to do to get to 95m price tag). [Paul] Pogba had pedigree when he signed for United so not comparable.”

Former England defender Stuart Pearce was critical of Antony’s display during United’s win against Wolves last week.

He said on talkSPORT: “Antony has got no intention of tracking back, Wolves can get a lot of joy down that side.

“Antony has failed to make an impact – he’s given away the ball on far too many occasions.”

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“He irritates the life out of me. Every time he gets the ball he points to his teammates and tells them what they should do. I saw recently that Ten Hag and [Bruno] Fernandes said he would be a really good player if he listened. He's certainly doing more talking than listening right now.”

United will next face Everton this weekend as they start their FA Cup campaign.