Manchester United are facing an anxious wait over Lisandro Mart\u00ednez after he picked up an injury in the 2026 World Cup final.<\/p>\n
The exact problem has not yet been confirmed, although his gesture towards his thigh at the time pointed to a possible muscle issue. There is some early optimism that the injury may not be serious, with Mart\u00ednez returning after the extended half-time period to take his place on the bench. He did not appear to be limping or in need of extra support, and he also took part in the medal ceremony afterwards.<\/p>\n
Any concern over Mart\u00ednez will be a setback for Manchester United. When fit, he remains one of the most accomplished ball-playing centre backs around and is highly trusted at Old Trafford. That was reflected last season, when he wore the captain\u2019s armband during Bruno Fernandes\u2019s brief spell out injured.<\/p>\n
Fitness, however, has been a persistent problem since his move from Ajax in 2022. Between February and November in 2025, Mart\u00ednez was sidelined for nine months with an ACL injury. He later missed several weeks with a calf problem. Over the past four seasons, Transfermarkt estimates he has missed 108 matches for club and country, with a total of 609 days spent injured.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez now has a three-week break before returning to club duty next month. His expected comeback to Carrington after the compulsory rest period should line up with the closing stages of the summer programme from August 10. United are then scheduled to meet Leeds United in Dublin, Ireland, and AC Milan in Wroc\u0142aw, Poland later that week.<\/p>\n
Even if the injury proves minor, his involvement in either match looks uncertain because he would only just be back in training. It is also unclear whether he would travel or continue working individually in Manchester if he is not ready to feature. Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko was absent from the squad for Saturday\u2019s defeat to Wrexham in Helsinki, Finland for that reason.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez is part of United\u2019s strongest XI, most likely alongside a resurgent Harry Maguire. Matthijs de Ligt is still recovering from back surgery in May, leaving Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven as the main alternative options to partner Maguire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester United await scans on Lisandro Mart\u00ednez after a 2026 World Cup final injury scare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1073,317],"class_list":["post-17893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-acl-injury","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}