‘The players are desperate’ – Ten Hag fires back at Rooney’s claim about injured Manchester United stars

Erik ten Hag says his Manchester United players are ‘desperate’ to regain fitness before the season ends.

The Dutchman was hitting back at Wayne Rooney’s claim that some of United’s injured players are fit enough to play, by stressing they are all “desperate” to be involved.

That is only believable because United are in the FA Cup final. Otherwise, I don’t think all of our players fancy battling it out for a place in the Europa Conference League.

Rooney shared his thoughts on United’s group of injured players after the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday while appearing on Sky Sports as a pundit. His comments were put to Ten Hag on Tuesday.

“No,” Ten Hag said, as quoted by Sky Sports. “You have to see here in Carrington. The players are desperate to play. I see Licha Martinez, I see Bruno – he did a fitness test on Sunday to play. Rashford did everything he could do. He trained and tried to train last week but he didn’t make it. Players are desperate to play, they want to be in the right shape. You see also Victor Lindelof and Raphael Varane, they are training to make themselves available for the final. They do what they can do.”

Ten Hag also confirmed that Martinez should be available for selection on Wednesday night, which is a huge boost ahead of our trip to Wembley at the end of the month.

Martinez has missed 36 of United’s 46 matches this season because of injuries. United have missed his spirit on the pitch.

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