Lisandro Martinez Man Utd message speaks volumes after training update | Football | Sport
Lisandro Martinez agreed with teammate Joshua Zirkzee’s glowing assessment of Manchester United‘s emerging talents, who have been training alongside the United first team squad over the international break. It comes with Martinez himself returning to first-team training as he steps up his return from injury
The Argentine defender has been sidelined with a serious knee injury since February. But he is expected to make his comeback in the coming weeks.
Due to the serious nature of his injury, Martinez has undergone a cautious rehabilitation programme, with his return to grass-based running happening several months ago.
The 27-year-old has now rejoined his colleagues for full training sessions on a regular basis. Over the international break, Martinez joined up with the Argentina team for some training sessions. He is now back at United.
Players such as Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee remained at the training ground, having not received international call-ups for England and the Netherlands, respectively. It has allowed several United youth prospects to be promoted to first-team training sessions.
Zirkzee and Martinez appeared to emerge victorious in their small-sided match at Carrington, with the Dutch striker posting on Instagram: “Young lads made it easy for us @lisandromartinezzz.” The defender subsequently shared this message to his story, adding red heart and flexed arm emojis.
Had the decision been Martinez’s alone, he would probably have returned several weeks earlier, though Ruben Amorim acknowledged before the draw with Nottingham Forest that certain aspects of his training schedule had to be modified.
He said: “He wants to go to this one, he is not going to, he is going to take time.
“He started training with us, but we had to change some things in the exercise for him, so slowly he is going to get better. He is really good. He gives us that edge in every training session.”
United have largely faltered in his absence, with their capacity to play out from defence and press aggressively impacted.
Luke Shaw is another player who has returned to the squad having endured spells on the sidelines alongside Martinez in recent months. Amorim seems to have discovered a fresh role for Shaw, which positions him as the most combative of the three centre-halves, alongside Harry Maguire or Matthijs de Ligt on the left.
This requires him to step forward and challenge the attacking midfielders seeking space between United’s defensive trio and central pairing, something he executed brilliantly in the triumph over Brighton when facing Georginio Rutter.
Martinez would undoubtedly excel in that position, but it may be considerable time before he occupies it consistently with Shaw delivering strong performances and no European competition at Old Trafford this campaign. United still face ten matches across the coming six weeks, which makes Martinez’s involvement highly probable.
Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad will all be unavailable for what Amorim hopes proves a brief spell during that period with the constraints of his squad about to be examined.
