Louis van Gaal has dropped goalkeeper David de Gea for Saturday’s Barclays Premier League opener against Tottenham.
He believes his first choice goalkeeper his distracted by talks of a potential move to Real Madrid.
At a press confernce on Friday, Van Gaal said: ‘De Gea will not play.
‘A player is also a human being. He cannot manage that. We will have to see who starts.’
‘I don’t know the solution with De Gea, that is the process. Still you repeat the question. I cannot lead this process, I can only watch and observe and that is what I’m doing. I’m not participating in it.
‘When it is not like that I accept it because I know when I became manager of Manchester United, every transfer period is a process. I’m fighting against the transfer period.
‘I know what is the process like and what it means for clubs and managers. It is not easy for De Gea to manage his situation now.’
Real Madrid remain keen on bringing De Gea back to the Spanish capital this summer in a move that his team-mates expect to happen before the close of the transfer window.
United are determined not to lose their No 1, who has just a year left on his contract, this summer and could let him leave for free when his deal expires.
Van Gaal was open to the possibility of selling De Gea to Real earlier this summer if a deal could be done for defender Sergio Ramos, but that now looks extremely unlikely.