2
An injury crisis has punctured the balloon of any early-season optimism that Manchester United fans had.
The club is in the bottom half of the table and has already lost two games out of four.
A big reason why is that barring Andre Onana, Erik ten Hag hasn’t been able to regularly field his new signings due to injury issues.
One such player could be set to return soon in a big boost to the squad.
The Athletic’s Simon Johnson reports that Mason Mount is targeting a return to action in time for United’s travel to Allianz Arena for their game against Bayern Munich.
The fixture, United’s first in the UEFA Champions League, is scheduled for September 20, giving Mount 10 more days to ramp up his preparations.
He has been ruled out of action for the last month or so due to a hamstring injury. The initial prognosis of the injury was looking bad but follow-up scans of the same have returned positive results.
Erik ten Hag is reportedly trying to be extra cautious and avoiding rushing him back to reduce the risk of further injuries.
If the progress remains on track, then the report states that Mount even has a small, but unlikely chance to feature against Brighton and Hove Albion.
That fixture takes place on September 16 and is United’s first game on return from the international break.
Getting Mount some minutes with an appearance off the bench in that game could pave the way for him to start the game against Bayern.
It is otherwise unlikely that he will get thrown straight into the deep end against the German champions after returning from such a lengthy absence.
Either way, with Mount close to returning, Amrabat’s issue not being serious, Mainoo on the recovery track, and Scott McTominay proving his credentials with Scotland, Ten Hag might finally have the good kind of headache when selecting his team.
