Ruben Amorim has said Manchester United cannot afford to make mistakes in the transfer market by panic buying to cope without Bruno Fernandes after he was injured in their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.

Amorim expects to be without his captainfor a while with a soft tissue injury and finds himself short of midfielders for the Boxing Day clash with Newcastle, which Kobbie Mainoo is also likely to miss.

Bruno Fernandes’ injury is not an excuse to overspend in the January transfer market says Ruben Amorim (Manchester United via Getty Imag)

But while United were interested in Brighton’s Carlos Baleba in the summer and their long-term targets could include Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton and Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson, Amorim said they may suffer in the short term rather than blundering in the market.

And he argued that Fernandes’ absence cannot be an excuse as he has to find solutions internally to help his side cope without the Portugal international.

“We need to deal with that,” he said. “What we cannot do is to reach January and try to do everything in urgency and make mistakes and then [it’s] ‘here we go again’ with a lot of mistakes. I’m not going to get [together] with Jason [Wilcox, the director of football] and Omar [Berrada, the chief executive] and say: ‘We need a lot of players.’

“Because we have a plan. If we have to suffer, the club comes first. Of course, we are in a moment where we need points but we need to find solutions and we are going to continue with our plan.”

United ended with youngster Jack Fletcher and defender Lisandro Martinez in midfield and Amorim added: “I think Kobbie might be out [against Newcastle], Bruno is out, so we will see, we are going to find solutions, no excuses, we need to win the next game and we will try to win the next game."

Bruno Fernandes was replaced at half-time during the Premier League defeat to Aston Villa (Manchester United via Getty Imag)

Fernandes, who has only missed two games through injury in his United career. went off after a challenge from Villa midfielder Amadou Onana.

Amorim added: “It is really strange. It’s a soft tissue, I think he’s going to lose some games, I don’t know for sure. Let’s see. I think it’s going to be a while. He is a guy who is always fit so he might recover quite well.”