To avoid making the same mistakes that resulted in Kobbie Mainoo’s injury last year, Manchester United has made adjustments to its pre-season tour schedule.
In order to prepare for the next Premier League season, Erik ten Hag and his team will play games against Arsenal, Real Betis in Liverpool, in Los Angeles, San Diego, and South Carolina, respectively, when they are back in the United States this summer.
After traveling more than 15,000 fly miles for United’s preseason campaign last year, which included stops in Oslo, Edinburgh, New Jersey, Houston, San Diego, and Las Vegas, Christian Eriksen said that “there’s been a lot of games and too much traveling.”
United paid the price for that heavy schedule when Mainoo suffered an ankle injury in the 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid in Houston.
The midfielder had at that stage not broken into the first-team with that process delayed until November as a result. Mainoo has rarely been out of the starting XI since.
Ten Hag contended with a seemingly endless list of injury problems last season, particularly in defence where he was forced to name 13 different centre-half combinations while also being without a recognised left-back for much of the campaign.
While last season’s pre-season was not solely blamed for the fitness problems that would plague their campaign, the Telegraph report United ‘have now recognised the importance of giving players more rest and recovery’.
Consequently, the team has curtailed its summer travel schedule to only six preseason games, which includes the Community Shield matchup with Manchester City on August 10.
Leny Yoro, the club’s new £52million signing, was among the players to fly out to the US with Joshua Zirkzee still on his summer break.
Mainoo, Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez, Alejandro Garnacho and Facundo Pellsistri will also miss the tour after representing their nations in the latter stages of the European Championship and Copa America.
Tyrell Malacia has also not made the trip.
The left-back missed the entire 2023-24 season with a knee injury and has remained in Manchester to undergo further treatment.