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5 months ago
34 Tyrell Malacia missed the entire season due to injury. The Netherlands international didn’t play a single minute after a promising debut season in England.
The 24-year-old underwent surgery on a knee injury that was causing discomfort since last summer.
Malacia featured 39 times in his first campaign for United, helping Ten Hag’s side win the Carabao Cup as they finished third in the Premier League. Unfortunately for the former Feyenoord full-back, he couldn’t build on those performances this season.
The injury became a bigger issue for United with Luke Shaw suffering setbacks throughout the campaign. As a result, fans watched Sofyan Amrabat and Antony instructed to cover the position.
Towards the end of the season, Ten Hag stopped shoehorning players from different positions into left-back and opted to start games with two right-backs (Diogo Dalot and Aaron Wan-Bissaka).
The Mirror has relayed quotes from Erik ten Hag as the manager provides an update on Malacia.
“Malacia hasn’t played a minute all season,” Ten Hag said. “He hasn’t even been on the training pitch once.
“We had recruited Malacia at the start of last season precisely as a back-up for Luke Shaw, those two options had to bring us a lot. The idea with Malacia was very good, and he just did well last season, but this season we never had him.”
Malacia travelled with the squad to Wembley for the FA Cup final win over Man City last week. Other than that, we’ve rarely seen him this season and it remains to be seen if he will be ready in time for pre-season. It was the third time Malacia had been at Wembley for a United final, and he did not feature in any of them. That should be something he aims to address next season.
Ten Hag added: “This season is by far the hardest season I have ever had. Of everyone in the organisation, I have had the most contact with the club doctor this season. I think that says it all.”
Meanwhile, Ten Hag referred to Shaw as the ‘best left-back in the world,’ which is something we agree with once he’s fully fit. The problem with the former Southampton full-back is he struggles to stay fit.
“Shaw is the best left-back in the world, he is so good. But he had a very serious injury at the beginning of his career. As a result, he will never be able to play 60 games in a year.”
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