The captain of Manchester United, Bruno Fernandes will have to tread carefully over the next two weeks or thereabout as he aims to avoid receiving a Premier League suspension.
The midfielder, who scored on international duty for Portugal last week, is just two yellow cards away from being handed a two-match ban.
He has collected eight cautions so far this season and any player that accumulates 10 yellow cards within their club’s first 32 Premier League matches of the campaign is automatically banned for two games.
Fernandes has already served one suspension this season for amassing five yellow cards, resulting in him missing the 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield on December 17.
He is in danger of missing the return fixture with Jurgen Klopp’s side, with United facing Brentford and Chelsea ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford on April 7.
As a result, the skipper will have to be on his best behaviour when United make back-to-back visits to west London over the next week. The Reds face Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday before locking horns with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next Thursday.
If Fernandes collects a yellow card in each of those two fixtures, he will miss United’s clash with Liverpool and the trip to Bournemouth on Saturday, April 13.
The clash with the Cherries, provided he has not collected his 10th yellow card of the campaign prior to that fixture, will mark the final game in which he will have to tread carefully to avoid a possible ban.
Fernandes, who deputised as a centre-back for a period of United’s dramatic FA Cup win over Liverpool before the international break, has been booked just once in the Reds’ last nine Premier League games, earning a late caution against Fulham earlier this month. He is the club’s most-booked player in the league this term.
Fernandes is one of several players in the league who are not far away from a potential ban, though Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson and Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes are even closer to being handed a suspension, each currently finding themselves on nine yellow cards. Chelsea have another five games to play before fulfilling their first 32 games of the season to pass the cut-off point.
Chelsea face United next week, meaning if Jackson is booked against Burnley on Saturday he will be ruled out of the visit of Erik ten Hag’s side. He was booked five times within the first six games this season, meaning he had served a one-match ban by the start of October.
