By Chris Wheeler for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:30 GMT, 24 February 2019 | Updated: 22:59 GMT, 24 February 2019
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One by one, they limped off the pitch past Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard nursing hamstring injuries. We hadn't reached half-time at Old Trafford and Manchester United had used all three substitutes.
One of them was Lingard but he only lasted another 18 minutes after replacing Mata. Alexis Sanchez took his place. Andreas Pereira was on for Herrera.
All the while, the man Solskjaer really wanted to take off was still out there.
After 21 minutes on Sunday, Ander Herrera had to go off after suffering a hamstring injury
Only four minutes later, injury to Juan Mata forced Manchester United into a second change
Two minutes before half time their injury misery was complete when Jesse Lingard went off
Each time play came to a halt, Marcus Rashford sat on his haunches or bent over, hands on knees, clearly in some distress.
It had been that way from the moment Jordan Henderson clattered into Rashford's right ankle with the game little more than a quarter of an hour old.
That wasn't the only time Liverpool paid very close attention to the young England striker whose two goals inside 24 minutes settled this fixture last season.
The memory of that defeat might well have influenced Jurgen Klopp's decision to leave out Trent Alexander-Arnold here and play the more experienced James Milner at right back. Either way, Liverpool seemed determined not to let lightning strike twice.
Solskjaer chose his words carefully afterwards but he didn't have to look far for a reason why Rashford has joined a worryingly long list of injury doubts for Wednesday's trip to Crystal Palace despite soldiering on to the end of this game.
