Siriki Dembele has gone for a scan after he picked up a knock on his ankle in the first half of United’s draw at home to Derby County on Tuesday night, and looks set to join fellow wingers Kyle Edwards, Matt Phillips and Przemyslaw Placheta on the sidelines.

It leaves the U’s with Owen Dale, Malcolm Ebiowei, Marselino Ferdinan and Tyler Goodrham as the natural options out wide, while the likes of Greg Leigh, Louie Sibley and Mark Harris could fill in if required.

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United head coach Des Buckingham said of Dembele and the potential to alter formation: “He’s off for a scan. I’m going to buy shares in that machine myself.

“It’s something we spoke about at the start of the season that we were going to have to look at anyway, whether it was because teams would look at us and think they could stop us and work us out a little bit.

“We’re 11 games in now. People will have a bit of an idea about what we do and how we do it.

“The good thing is we’ve got many ways to do what we do within it, but we also know if we’re able to switch, whether it be the formation, a different way of playing or a different shape, that would be important to us at some point this season.

“If that’s this weekend, then so be it, but it’s going to be so important now as we evolve, what we do, both in terms of players and playing style, that we’ve got different ways of doing things.

“Certainly a change of formation is one of those things, it’s just whether or not we do it this weekend.”