Maguire will remain Man Utd captain, Solskjaer confirms

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed Harry Maguire will keep the captain’s armband at Manchester United.

The England centre-back was found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and repeated attempts of bribery after an altercation with police in the Greek island of Mykonos, but his 21 months and 10 days prison sentence was suspended. Maguire has since lodged an appeal and is expected to have a retrial, while the Greek prosecutor has criticised him for refusing to apologise for the incident.

Solskjaer commended the 27-year-old for the way he has reacted to the situation and says he sees no reason to strip him of the captaincy.

“Of course, Harry, as you said, had a difficult summer. He didn’t have a long break,” he said in an interview with MUTV.

“His break was different to others as we gave him a few more days and, after, he’s come back and looked fine.

“He’s handled it really well and, of course, I’ll be here to support him. He is going to be our captain. We’ll just leave Harry and his people and the process to run.

“For me, he is a top, an absolute top human being and has always been a positive guy with the right values. So I really hope we can see Harry performing at his best.”

Meanwhile, United midfielder Paul Pogba has been forced to miss training sessions as the Red Devils prepare for the new season, having tested positive for Covid-19.

But the Norwegian is confident the France star will return to full fitness and hopes to be able to include him in their friendly against Aston Villa.

“Paul’s had a couple of training sessions so he’s lost out on a few sessions because of the virus, of course,” he added.

“But Paul is quick to get fit. Of course, he worked really hard to get back after lockdown last time and played the majority of the games. Hopefully, he’ll be ready for next weekend. I am not 100 per cent sure though.”

United’s Premier League campaign will begin next week when they welcome Crystal Palace to Old Trafford.