Manchester United were dealt a serious injury blow when Luke Shaw was confirmed to have acquired a muscle problem.
The start of the season has been rough for Man Utd as performances in opening games against Wolves and Tottenham have left a lot to be desired, even though the Red Devils have picked up three points.
More injuries won’t help Erik ten Hag get his team back to their best early in the season but he is now without his first choice left-back, a position where he couldn’t afford to lose any more personnel.
Here is all we know about Shaw’s injury and what it means for Man Utd at this stage of the season.
News of Shaw’s injury first broke early on Friday morning and even with minimal information to work with, it was clear it would be a fairly significant injury lay-off for the England international.
The original thought was Shaw would be sidelined for at least a few weeks, but it now looks like United may have to do without the former Southampton defender for around two months.
In his press conference ahead of the Nottingham Forest match at Old Trafford, Erik ten Hag didn’t get too specific on Shaw’s injury, also discussing Mason Mount and Tyrell Malacia at the same time.
“We can’t do that [put a timescale], it’s personal these days,” he explained. “Luke will be longer than Mason I think.”
“It will also take a few weeks before he will be back,” Ten Hag said of Malacia. “Definitely, we have the solutions in our squad to cope with that. We thought before the season about this scenario, it could happen, you hope to avoid. But if it happens you have to be ready for it.”
In terms of what is specifically wrong with Shaw, the only word is that he has some sort of muscular injury. It may be that more details emerge once more extensive tests and scans have been carried out.
As you may have picked up on in Ten Hag’s comments above, the backup left-back at Manchester United is out with an injury and won’t be back any time soon.
Tyrell Malacia will be absent at the same time as Shaw which will be a source of anguish for the Dutchman. While he would not wish an injury on a teammate, Shaw’s knock has now opened up a run of games Malacia is also unavailable for.
That means the only fit left-back at the club right now is 20-year-old Alvaro Fernandez, who isn’t yet in the first-team picture. There is also a chance that he could leave the club for Granada in the near future.
For the Forest match on Saturday, it is likely Diogo Dalot will move to left-back as one of his main attributes is his dexterity on both wings. That would keep Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right-back.
Going forward though, Man Utd could be forced to dip into the market with two left-backs injured and another possibly leaving the club. No names have been concretely linked at this stage, but it is a headache the club does not need while they try and get some good performances in the bag.
