‘Everything is negative’: ‘Immense’ United ace opens up on injury hell, says they ‘destroy your head’

Manchester United fans are keeping everything crossed that Lisandro Martinez can oversee an injury-free season in 2024/2025.

Now in the third term of his Red Devils tenure, the centre-half has been one of a handful of players to have suffered frequent and lengthy setbacks, consequently ruling him out of large portions of the seasons.

His maiden campaign ended prematurely after he sustained a metatarsal fracture in April 2023. Despite having surgery to correct the problem, it was re-aggravated just a month into 2023/2024.

Then, after three months out of action, he returned to feature in only three Premier League matches before a collision with West Ham United’s Vladimir Coufal resulted in Martinez suffering a knee complaint. It took eight weeks until he was able to resume training, yet remarkably proceeded to strain his calf and miss a further month of fixtures.

Luckily for Erik ten Hag and Lionel Scaloni, the ‘immense’ 26-year-old was deemed fully fit in time to play the FA Cup final and play an integral role for Argentina during their Copa America campaign over the summer, adding a further two trophies to his already-illustrious collection after such a torrid year.

It’s hard to imagine the physical torment such severe injuries can have on a person, while the mental anguish of suffering setback after setback will have certainly taken its toll.

Read more: ‘Without a doubt’ – United legend reckons Ten Hag will be gone ‘by Christmas’, he’s just ‘not good enough’

Martinez reflects on a challenging period

He opened up on the matter when speaking to Argentine newspaper La Nacion, saying: “I am very grateful for what happened to me.

“Look what I tell you… It is hard to repeatedly go through injuries because injuries destroy your head, they fill you with fear – with mistrust.

“Emotionally everything is negative after the injuries: you become insecure, you stop believing in yourself, you don’t even walk well, you don’t know what will happen to you…”

“There is the internal work to know how to cope and always take the positive,” he continued. “I am one of those who think that things happen for a reason, always. Always. The injuries have improved me a lot – they made me a better person and a better player, a better professional.

“After everything I went through, today I feel very calm, very emotionally balanced. I felt that it was a goal that at some point I had to accomplish.”