Manchester United great Bryan Robson believes Louis van Gaal could have avoided such an injury-ravaged season if he kept some certain players at the club.

The Red Devils have been hammered by injuries this season but the extent of the damage may have been averted had they retained key squad players such as Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans, who both left for West Bromwich Albion, and Javier Hernandez, who has been starring in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen.

"I definitely feel the squad could be that little bit stronger," Robson told Sky Sports.

"Everybody gets injuries and we've had our fair share, and we've had some real top players injured for a long period of time.

"When you look at people like Hernandez, Darren Fletcher and Johnny Evans you sometimes say 'well, should we have allowed them to go or kept them in the group to have a more solid squad, if this sort of situation happened?'

"But they haven't, they've gone, and the manager and the coaching staff and the players have just got to do the best they can until the end of the season and see what it gets us."