‘Fire burning’ – Ten Hag pleased with how new signing is recovering from injury

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has issued an encouraging update on defender Leny Yoro.

The French defender, 18, joined United last month before fracturing his metatarsal in a pre-season clash against Arsenal.

Yoro recently underwent surgery and has already started his rehab. He is expected to miss the next three months, which means he should be available for selection in October.

Although he’s still a young prospect, Ten Hag is confident that Yoro has the required maturity to succeed once he returns from injury.

“This is one of the reasons why we signed him [Yoro], he’s very mature and has a great personality,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports. “He is dealing with [the injury], looking forward and being bright.

“He is being positive. He’s already started his rehab. There is a fire burning there and as I’ve said, for his age he is very mature. He won’t get distracted and he knows what he wants.

“He knows what he wants to go and I’m sure he’ll be returning as soon as possible and will be supportive of the team winning games and trophies.

“You [the players] need heart and you need head, both traits are very important, so we need both things right to form a team and in a team you need different skillsets, but personality, mentality and character are very important to construct a winning team.”

Ten Hag was also asked about the appointment of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who joins his backroom staff as assistant manager.

“Of course, strikers can take benefit from him because he was such a great striker, he scored so many goals, he had so much success, so definitely he’ll help the strikers in different areas,” the manager added.

“But definitely, on the mental side, he will bring his desire to win games by scoring goals. I have strong belief in the person, strong belief in his skills, to help our team score goals.

“But also to help our team working as a team that means we’re attacking as an 11, and in the end, he’s the one who finished but he was part of 11 players. So we have to defend with 11 players and the front players are the first defenders.”

United are back in action on Saturday when they face rivals Man City in the Community Shield.

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