Cristiano Ronaldo was not among the Manchester United players that gathered on Friday night in preparation for the weekend match against Leicester.
The 37-year-old has spent the past week on international service with Portugal, where he played 180 minutes to help his team qualify for the World Cup in Qatar this winter.
Bruno Fernandes, a fellow countryman, was among the 21 players who gathered at the Lowry Hotel, as was captain Harry Maguire, who has had a terrible week after being booed by England's fans during an international friendly against Ivory Coast.
Since then, the response Maguire received has been a hot topic, with several players taking to social media to wonder why England fans would boo him, and United interim manager Ralf Rangnick added fuel to the fire on Friday, admitting he was startled by what he observed at Wembley.
Rangnick said in his news conference, "He understands my position toward him, he's been a very valuable player, and the captain of the team and the club, and also my captain." "I didn't understand what was going on at Wembley, but I'm very sure it won't happen here with the Red Army and the club behind the captain." He's a key figure in the game. In recent years, he has performed admirably for Manchester United and England. After the game, both Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane said something. I didn't see the game, but I did hear about what transpired after the starting lineup was released. It's difficult to comprehend.
"I haven't met them in person, but I'm confident that this will not occur at our stadium. That's unusual for it to happen in an international game before another international game."
Ronaldo's relationship with Rangnick has been questioned at times, most recently when he was left out of the squad for Manchester City's 4-1 derby defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
He made up for the exclusion by scoring a magnificent hat-trick in United's most recent Premier League match, a 3-2 victory over Tottenham at Old Trafford.