Ruben Amorim has stressed his desire to keep Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes amid interest from Saudi Arabia, calling him "one of the top players in the world".
The 30-year-old playmaker has starred for the Red Devils since joining from Sporting Lisbon in 2020, including scoring a brace in last Thursday's 3-0 Europa League semi-final first-leg win at Athletic Bilbao.
The build-up to the return fixture at Old Trafford has been dominated by talk of interest in the United captain, with Al-Hilal reportedly plotting a big-money swoop.
Amorim revealed in March he had told the Portugal international he was "not going anywhere" following links to Real Madrid, with the head coach striking a similar tone amid talk of a summer move to Saudi Arabia.
"I think it is easy to understand (his importance) - not just because of the numbers but the way he plays, the importance that he has during his five years here," Amorim said.
"He is a top player, we need top players. He is a leader, he's the captain, so he's really important.
"It's normal that a lot of clubs want a player like Bruno, like (Alejandro) Garnacho, like others.
"But we want to keep the best players and Bruno is clearly one of the top players in the world, so our idea didn't change. We want Bruno here."
For his part, Garnacho (above) insisted he had no intention of leaving the club any time soon, saying: "Obviously as a footballer you are always going to read and listen to some rumours about the future.
"But I have a contract here until 2028, so I'm happy here."
Matthijs de Ligt looks set to miss the second leg against Athletic Bilbao after sitting out of training on the eve of Thursday's semi-final.
De Ligt returned from a month out in Spain as a second-half substitute at San Mames and went on to start Sunday's 4-3 loss Brentford, only to limp off after 35 minutes.
The Netherlands international missed training on Wednesday, with the severity of his issue to become clear at Amorim's pre-match press conference.
United midfielder Christian Eriksen missed the session but is expected to be available on Thursday.
Noussair Mazraoui trained after being rested against the Bees and Ayden Heaven did separate work away from the main group at Carrington.
Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez, Joshua Zirkzee and Toby Collyer remain out. Jonny Evans was another that sat out training.
Athletic Bilbao have suffered a triple injury blow ahead of the second leg with Nico and Inaki Williams plus top scorer Oihan Sancet all ruled out.
The trio were missing from the 24-man travelling squad named by Ernesto Valverde on Wednesday morning, with Athletic announcing that Inaki Williams – who has 11 goals and nine assists this season – has suffered a hamstring injury.
His younger brother Nico, who also has netted 11 goals, has been dealing with a groin problem.
Sancet, who leads the charts with 17 goals, missed last week's first leg with a hamstring problem and has been unable to recover in time for the reverse fixture.
United were already strong favourites to advance to the final after a brace from Bruno Fernandes and a Casemiro goal gave them a 3-0 win in Bilbao in last week’s first leg.
Bilbao travelled to Manchester on Wednesday morning ahead of a training session at Old Trafford.
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