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Van Gaal's training is not to blame for United's injuries

Jonny Evans was injured against Leicester © Getty Images

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Jonny Evans says Louis van Gaal's training methods are not to blame for Manchester United's painfully-long injury list.

The defender made his comeback on Tuesday as he started for the reserves in their 5-0 win against Blackburn after two months on the sidelines with an ankle injury

Evans, who said he is not yet ready for a first-team return despite a 64-minute runout, blamed freak incidents for the club's problems.

"Players don't get injured on purpose," he told MUTV. "There have been injuries with the odd hamstring or groin, there have been quite a few of those, but [Marcus] Rojo dislocated his shoulder and I had a fracture in my foot.

"There were a couple of other injuries - Phil Jones has got one [shin splints] that came out of the blue. We don't want any more injuries but what can we do about it?

"They're freak injuries and it's difficult from that point of view. It'd be nice to get settled in the team - everyone in the squad wants to get settled in their position as well."

Ander Herrera scored for the reserves after being an unused substitute in United's last four matches and playing only 45 minutes since suffering a cracked rib against West Ham in September.

The Spaniard wore a corset to face West Bromwich Albion in October but was taken off at half-time and lost his place to Marouane Fellaini.

The £28.8 million signing completed the full game against Blackburn on Tuesday while Evans, who has been limited to four first-team games this season, was taken off in the second-half.

His return represents a boost to United at a time when they are without injured centre-backs Rojo and Jones.

They are also waiting to discover the extent of left-back Luke Shaw's ankle injury and although right-back Rafael da Silva, who has had a groin problem, is back in training, he did not feature against Blackburn.

Young striker Will Keane opened the scoring and Herrera added the second after a cross from Adnan Januzaj.

Andreas Pereira and Joe Rothwell, with a brace, were the other scorers for Warren Joyce's side in the Lancashire Senior Cup quarter-final at Leigh.

Belgium international Januzaj, who was dropped by Louis van Gaal for Saturday's win at Arsenal, also played the full 90 minutes.

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