United players believed to harbour concerns over Ten Hag’s ‘running demands’ after 47 cases of injury or illness

Samuel Luckhurst claims that numerous Manchester United players harbour concerns over Erik ten Hag’s training orders. 

His report via Manchester Evening News states that the manager’s ‘running demands’ are proving somewhat troublesome to the squad during a season in which they’ve – so far – registered 47 separate cases of injury or illness, each resulting in at least one player missing a game. 

Ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby, Ten Hag was again navigating a reduced squad with nine absentees. Pivotal starters such as Rasmus Hojlund, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw were all sidelined and are expected to be for the coming fixtures.

The manager then revealed following the loss that Jonny Evans and Marcus Rashford, United’s only goalscorer in the clash, had been carrying knocks prior to kick-off but were still named in the starting 11. Both players were withdrawn before the full-time whistle. 

Only three players have evaded setbacks thus far: Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot. The debilitating crisis comes after the 2022/2023 campaign, in which United played 62 games.