Marcel Sabitzer's potential shirt number at Man Utd

Manchester United completed the loan signing of Marcel Sabitzer on deadline day, drafting in the Austrian from Bayern Munich as cover for the injured Christian Eriksen.

The 28-year-old is an experienced international midfielder, appearing 66 times for Austria to date, and has a strong reputation on the continent for his overall ability.

Erik ten Hag had initially been happy with the options available to him at United, but Eriksen’s ankle injury – suffered in the 3-0 win over Reading in the FA Cup fourth round – suddenly left the Red Devils a little short of options in the middle of the park.

Scott McTominay is also nursing a problem, leaving Sabitzer, Casemiro, Fred and Bruno Fernandes as the fit senior options that Ten Hag can call upon.

But before Sabitzer makes his debut for United, he must first pick out which number he’ll be wearing at Old Trafford.

Marcel Sabitzer shirt number history

The majority of Sabitzer’s career has seen him take possession of the number 7 shirt.

He had that number both at RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig, before taking the number 18 jersey when he joined Bayern Munich.

Prior to that, Sabitzer had worn the number 24 shirt at Rapid Vienna and Admira Wacker.

On the international stage, Sabitzer has worn the number 9, 10, 14, 16 and 20 shirt, while he also donned 7 and 17 at Under-21 level.

What shirt number could Marcel Sabitzer take at Man Utd?

The good news for Sabitzer is that the number 7 shirt is available at Old Trafford after the departure of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, while number 24 is also available.

9 is occupied by Anthony Martial, 10 by Marcus Rashford and 18 by Casemiro.

If none of those take Sabitzer’s fancy, he could opt to take 13 and 15 – the former is typically seen as a goalkeeper shirt and the latter was last worn by Andreas Pereira before his transfer to Fulham last summer.

United have a number of other numbers occupied by youth players out on loan, so it then becomes a question of whether Sabitzer fancies taking on a number of 40 and above.