LONDON — Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim is confident Bruno Fernandes will avoid a lengthy lay-off but refused to say yesterday when his captain will return.

The Portugal international suffered a soft tissue injury in Sunday’s 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, after which Amorim said he feared Fernandes would be out for “a while”.

But speaking ahead of tomorrow’s game against Newcastle, Amorim took a more optimistic view about the extent of Fernandes’s injury and of the calf problem sustained by Kobbie Mainoo who missed the Villa game.

“Not for this game,” he said on the prospect of either being available to face the Magpies.

“They are recovering. I don’t think that is going to take a lot of time. I think Kobbie will return faster than Bruno.”

Amorim, asked for a timescale on Fernandes’s absence, replied: “I don’t want to say, I have an idea but let’s see.”