Man Utd star says he got injured after agreeing to Ten Hag request, 15 appearances last season
Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has said that everyone is to blame after he picked up a long- term hamstring injury against Luton Town earlier this year.
The England international has had an injury-plagued career with United and he made only 15 appearances for the club on the back of multiple setbacks. In an interview with The Telegraph , Shaw revealed that he felt his hamstring against Villa and he only returned to training, 24 hours before the Luton trip.
The left-back added that he could not say no to manager Erik ten Hag who asked him to play, but he should not have taken the pitch against the Hatters. He said:
“I felt something against Aston Villa and came off at half-time at Villa Park. It’s kind of everyone’s fault. Partly my fault, partly medical staff, I think everyone would admit that.” “I didn’t train the whole week. The scan came back and there wasn’t too much there. But I didn’t train all week, then trained the day before the game.
“If the manager asks me to play, I’m never going to say no. I shouldn’t have played. But I’ve always said the team comes before everything for me. That will never change.”
Man Utd need to improve handling of injured players United had a big defensive crisis during the 2023/24 campaign and part of the blame could be placed on the manager and the medical staff at the club.
Shaw should have made the bench at best against Luton, but he was surprisingly picked in the starting XI, just one day after returning to first-team training. We saw something similar with Lisandro Martinez and Jonny Evans too.
The decision was made to play them after few training sessions with the squad. In our view, United need to improve on their handling of injured players. Shaw could have played a key part in the season run-in if he was not rushed back into action.
The left-back has luckily proved his fitness ahead of the European Championship with England. He will be hoping to stand-out for them, just like in the previous edition.