Manchester United star opens up on recovery from injury hell after 18-months sidelined

Tyrell Malacia has been out of action for 18 months.

The Manchester United left-back has opened up on his tricky recovery path as he works towards an eagerly awaited return to competitive football.

Malacia, 25, completed 45 minutes for United’s U21s against Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night. It was his first appearance – at any level for United – since the final day of the 2023/23 season.

It was later decided that Malacia would undergo surgery on a meniscus tear, which then led to major complications and several setbacks – hence why we haven’t seen him in action for so long.

The cliché goes ‘he’ll be like a new signing’ when he eventually returns.

Malacia’s injury has hurt the team because Luke Shaw has been injured too. That means we had to start the new season without a recognised left-back and had to force Diogo Dalot to play on his least favoured side.

Tyrell Malacia tricky path back to fitness

Speaking to The Athletic, Malacia said: “I had to start my rehab over, basically. I had one day to be disappointed and then I had to be like, ‘OK, we go again’.”

The Netherlands international also had to return home and travel to Barcelona to work with specialists in the second half of last season due to the injury crisis. He couldn’t get the care he needed due to the amount of injuries that hit the first team.

Malacia kept a positive mindset through it all. He added: “I have a lot of patience but, in this process, I learned that I have more patience than every other person in the world at this moment.

“At the end of the day, we want to do everything right, at the right time. We don’t want to rush into things. It is going well, very well, now — step by step. Maybe it went a little bit too quickly before, so we’ve learned from that.”

We are looking forward to seeing Malacia back pushing for a place in the first team under Ruben Amorim as head coach.