Manchester United’s bad luck with injuries this season was perhaps best summed up when their own Superman, Bruno Fernandes, missed a club match through injury for the first time in his professional career on Monday night.
The Portuguese superstar is a warrior and is always willing to fight through the pain barrier, especially when he had to grit his teeth to get through an FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest earlier this season after being kicked days earlier in a defeat against Fulham. or when he bandaged his hand during the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City.
His absence from the 4-0 rout at Selhurst Park meant that 63 separate cases of injury and illness hampered United this season, something manager Erik ten Hag still struggles to really understand.
“During the more than 10 years that I have been managing, I have never had this experience,” the Dutchman said recently.
“There are so many injury problems, so I’m confident from all my experience, it can happen once every 10 years.” Hopefully now I have to wait another 10 to have to deal with so many injuries.”
Bruno Fernandes was forced to miss his first game due to injury in his professional career
The Manchester United captain did not play during the 4-0 defeat against Crystal Palace.
Erik ten Hag, whose future at Old Trafford is under a lot of pressure, lamented the spate of absences and said he had never experienced anything like it in his 10 years as a manager.
Twenty-five members of the senior team have suffered at least one injury this season and have missed a combined total of more than 1,200 days. Only André Onana, Diogo Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho have avoided an injury that prevented the match.
Furthermore, of his 110 games in charge, it can be argued that Ten Hag has only been able to name his best XI twice: against Wolves on the opening day and against West Ham in February. Fans were left stunned as more than one eyebrow was raised behind the scenes at United.
There has been a strong feeling among some sources who spoke to Mail Sport that the intensity of Ten Hag’s training, particularly for players returning from long layoffs, has played a factor in the aggravation. The number of high-intensity sessions has also bothered some.
Ten Hag dismissed those claims when pressed, insisting he needs robust players to win at the highest level.
‘No, we don’t train too hard. We need to be fit,” she recently told Sky.
“The standards of this league require you to be fit, otherwise you won’t be able to match the standards required in a game.” We don’t train too hard.
And he added: “You need very strong players, that is the requirement.”
“When we were at Christmas with a lot of injuries and then you had to bring them back, but the moment they are injury-free they will not be fit.” They haven’t returned to fitness straight away, that also needs a couple of games before getting back into rhythm.
“I think we have more players who are very robust, like Bruno (Fernandes) is, but that is the type of player you need.”
The truth is that if United had 18 Fernandes in their squad the “crisis” would be much less pronounced than it is. Expect ‘toughness’, both physical and mental, to be high on INEOS’ wish list for new recruits.
United have already taken the steps they feel are necessary with their facilities to close the gap on their rivals and limit the extent of the type of injury crisis now being experienced.
Just a few months ago, a hyperbaric chamber, which can significantly speed up injury recovery times, was added alongside existing cryotherapy chambers.
Even before Ten Hag’s arrival in 2022, United undertook an upgrade of wet recovery areas such as pools, ice baths and saunas.
And yet, what Sir Dave Brailsford and the INEOS team quickly discovered is that there is still a lot of work to be done to elevate United and bring them closer to rivals that boast truly state-of-the-art facilities. It seems the work on Carrington is just beginning.
Manchester United will carry out a major renovation of their training ground this summer.
Sir Dave Brailsford (left) has been authorized by Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) to rebuild Carrington.
Mail Sport exclusively revealed multi-million pound plans to redevelop Carrington as a training center in a bid to alleviate crises of this scale in the future.
A new ‘player pre-activation and performance’ area is at the center of the refurbishment, and club sources hope the new warm-up area will help reduce the risks of players suffering costly knocks.
Preactivation may include the use of resistance bands and foam rollers with the primary goal of increasing blood flow to the muscles through activities such as jumping and jogging.
Players will also perform dynamic mobility exercises, such as lunges, which open up areas such as the knees and hips to facilitate rotation and perform a series of stretching routines. A specialized space may well play a key role in your day-to-day life.
Much of the scrutiny surrounding the high volume of injuries suffered by United this season is landing at the door of Gary O’Driscoll, United’s head of sports medicine. His arrival from Arsenal, where he spent 14 years and became a key confidant of manager Mikel Arteta, represented a major coup and he has been tasked with elevating United’s sports science department.
O’Driscoll, a lifelong United fan, helped lead an internal review in late 2023 into the department’s failings and where progress could (and should) be made.
The Irishman arrived from Arsenal with a reputation for being one of the most progressive doctors in the Premier League.
He has extensive experience in top-level sport, having worked with the British Lions, Ireland Rugby, Saracens and British Cycling and Mail Sport understands he is already incredibly popular in the dressing room.
The Ten Hag team are said to have great respect for O’Driscoll given his work and the internal suggestion is that many of the injury cases have been bad luck, rather than a systemic failure behind the scenes.
In fact, one source put it down to the backlog of games after Covid finally caught up with United, pointing out that only Barcelona could compete with the 62 games United played last season.
United’s long-serving head physiotherapist Robin Sadler left in January as part of a restructure and more key moves are expected to follow as O’Driscoll, who relies on figures such as physio Richard Merron and club doctor Jim Moxon , keep going. what has been described as crucial rebuilding work to get United back on par.
Mail Sport previously reported how O’Driscoll has been pushing for the employment of younger practitioners who can implement newer methods and a forward-thinking approach to sports medicine.
United’s head of sports medicine Gary O’Driscoll (right), pictured in 2019 while at Arsenal.
The move comes amid concern behind the scenes that United’s rivals are significantly more advanced in terms of sports medicine, putting the Old Trafford club at a disadvantage in terms of performance on the pitch.
Ten Hag has been as cautious about the results of the internal review as ever when asked about the nature of a player’s injury.
“We have an idea and we will work on it,” he said. “Internally, we will deal with it.”
It remains to be seen whether the Dutchman will be around to see the fruits of a season’s worth of study and analysis, but if he is, United will hope to take a giant step towards becoming the best in their class.