With just one win in the league so far this season, Manchester United are travelling to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in what is expected to be a crucial fixture for their manager's career.

After a 4-1 away loss to Como in the Champions League and a 3-0 Premier League defeat to Bournemouth, most expected Carrick to face the sack. However, United have decided to give him time to turn things around.

Chelsea themselves have been in mixed form, having lost at home to Tottenham Hotspur last week and been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Liverpool on Wednesday evening.

The Blues have a potent attack, although striker Joao Pedro is expected to miss the tie with injury. Carrick will be looking for his side to replicate their 1-0 win at the Bridge earlier this year, which came from a goal by Matheus Cunha.

Across October, United have struggled with a number of key players finding themselves out through injury, with players in each department struggling with problems.

While it has been confirmed that Kobbie Mainoo is back with the group, reports indicate that Benjamin Šeško is expected to miss the rest of the year while recovering from a persistent shin problem.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon, Carrick provided an update on Šeško's injury, explainign that while reports suggest he will be out until the new year, the club themselves are not completely sure on his return timeline.

"Yeah, unfortunately, Ben looks like he's going to be out for a period of time," Carrick explained to journalists. "We're still not clear of exactly how long, but it's going to be for a longer period of time.

"It was the process, as I said to you before, we had to go through the process, a bit of a healing process for the injury to see how it would react and what direction to go with that. Even now, we're still working through it.

"But it's unfortunately, obviously first and foremost, for Ben, for the kind of period that he's had, and tried to get through it and going through this again, and for us to not have him available is obviously a blow, but we'll try and get back, get him back as quick as we can."

"When asked about any other updates on injuries, Carrick said, "Good news, Kobbie did a little bit of training yesterday, so he's back in and around the group, so that's obviously a positive."

Meanwhile, it seems as if Luke Shaw, Patrick Dorgu, and Manuel Ugarte will remain unavailable, while Marcus Rashford has only just returned to undergoing gym recovery work at Carrington as he works on a hip issue.

There is an argument to be had that key players returning from injury, such as Matthijs de Ligt, Mainoo, and eventually Šeško, will help Carrick as it would give him a better array of options and more competition in the squad, he has changes he must make too.

The team's running speed and distance covered this season are damning, with the players finding themselves in the lower echelons of every statistical table measuring work rate and effort.

Simply put, United don't work hard enough. The players will need to fix their attitude to work on the pitch, but it's Carrick who must inspire a higher work rate and desire to succeed.

Reports suggest that the United boss has held meetings with the players and group to get at the crux of what's going wrong, and a week of training ahead of the Chelsea tie will help. But, the turnaround must start now, or Carrick could still face the sack.