Jesse Lingard offers advice to his Manchester United teammates

The ruling was made after a close scrutiny of a video footage from United’s last weekend match against West Ham where Schweinsteiger was seen catching West Ham’s Winston Reid with his left arm during a free kick.

United will be without Schweinsteiger for the Premier League matches at Bournemouth, at home to Norwich City and the Boxing Day fixture at Stoke City. Referee Mark Clattenburg apparently didn’t make mention of the incident in his post-match report, but a panel of three “former elite referees” have decided it warranted a red card and its accompanying suspension.

Van Gaal also hauled Schweinsteiger off in the second half of United’s 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg on Tuesday, a result that saw the club exit the Champions League.

Speaking of the incident after the game, Winston Reid said, “He knows what he’s done – he’s elbowed me in the face”.

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s form has been criticised by Louis van Gaal but Germany boss Joachim Low has defended the midfielder.

“German captain Bastian Schweinsteiger rebukes Man U’s strikers for not having “the killer instinct”, the 46-year-old has written in her football diary in The Sun (Saturday, December 5 entry).

“Even an experienced player like him needs time to get used to a new league”.

“Playing for Manchester United comes with a lot of pressure”, said the midfielder.

“I took him off and I don’t take players off for nothing, but we are all human beings and so is Bastian Schweinsteiger”.

However, van Gaal seemed disappointed at Schweinsteiger’s performance after the match, as he conceded that this was not the same guy, who once ran riot at the Allianz Arena.