United monster back at Carrington after last season’s injury horror show, Carrick hoping for a swift recovery – report

Manchester United have begun pre-season preparations with all the senior stars who failed to make it to the World Cup currently at Carrington. That includes Matthijs de Ligt, who missed the second half of last season due to a back injury. With a Netherlands team call-up not forthcoming, the 26-year-old decided to go under the knife, which means he will miss a good chunk of the initial stages of the upcoming season. The Dutchman has yet to feature under Michael Carrick but he seems determined to make up for lost time, with the centre-back focusing heavily on his rehabilitation. Matthijs de Ligt back at Carrington According to The Manchester Evening News, the former Bayern Munich ace is currently at United’s newly revamped training complex and is going through an individual program. “There was no sign of Matthijs de Ligt in the pictures United released of players returning to pre-season training on Thursday, but the centre-back is back at Carrington and is following an individual program as he continues to recover from back surgery. “The 26-year-old has done work abroad since undergoing surgery in May, but he has also been at Carrington during the summer to keep his fitness work going.” The Red Devils are happy with the pace of De Ligt’s recuperation and feel the worst is behind the defender. United will be hoping for no more injuries to their backline “There is confidence that his back issue is behind him after surgery,” the MEN report further added. While all the focus is on strengthening the midfield, Carrick will be well aware that his backline could be exposed if there is one more injury. It was surprising to note that INEOS do not have any plans to add numbers to the backline given the poor injury records of Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire. The 20-time English league champions will hope none of them suffer an issue before Matthijs de Ligt returns to action. Feature image Michael Regan via Getty Images The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Ayantan Chowdhury After failing to become a professional footballer, Ayantan switched to the next best thing: writing about the greatest football club in the world. He has extensive sports journalism experience, having worked for over 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25