United face Middlesbrough on Saturday (12.15pm) but they will be without full-back Gaetano Berardi who will be serving the first of his three match suspension.

The full-back was sent off in the final minutes of United’s 2-1 Capital One Cup win on Tuesday night and will now miss Middlesbrough and Brighton at home, as well as Watford away.

A likely absentee for United is striker Steve Morison, who continues to suffer with a calf injury that kept him out of the opening day defeat to Millwall.

United made three signings this week and Billy Sharp and Liam Cooper could be in line to make their debuts on Saturday in front of the Sky cameras.

But, Giuseppe Bullusci will have to wait as international clearance has not been granted due to a bank holiday in Italy on Friday.

“If I wanted to name them on Saturday then they are fit to play, they are ready to go,” David Hockday said of Billy Sharp and Liam Cooper. “They all trained on Thursday and Friday and we are assessing their fitness levels and we’ll make the decision.”