Manchester United have taken another step toward introducing JJ Gabriel to senior football after naming the 15-year-old academy forward in Michael Carrick\u2019s squad for the next part of their preseason tour of northern Europe.<\/p>\n
Gabriel has already been involved in first-team training on multiple occasions, and he is due to be eligible for the Premier League in 2026-27. The immediate question is whether he can now turn that exposure into actual senior minutes during preseason, a move that would mark a significant stage in his development.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s next outing comes against Rosenborg in Trondheim, Norway on Friday evening, and Gabriel has been included in a 25-player group. He comes in for striker Ethan Wheatley, who was part of the squad that lost to Wrexham in Finland last Saturday. That is the only alteration to the travelling party.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2025-26, United U-18 manager Darren Fletcher was asked whether Gabriel might spend preseason with the first team. His view was clear: Gabriel is \u201cmore than capable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Any appearance would also move Gabriel closer to an important place in the club\u2019s record books. If he were to feature in a competitive match before October 25, he could become Manchester United\u2019s youngest ever player. That benchmark is currently held by the late David Gaskell, who made his debut in 1956 at the age of 16 years and 19 days.<\/p>\n
Gabriel is still very early in his progression, though. He has not yet reached the two-year scholarship programme that bridges academy football and the senior game, a stage that Kai Rooney has recently entered.<\/p>\n
United continue to wait for the return of any player who featured in the World Cup knockout phase, apart from Scotland midfielder Tyler Fletcher. Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko was also absent against Wrexham and remains on a fitness programme at Carrington after missing the end of 2025-26 through injury. There is no current concern over his availability for the start of the new season against Hull City on August 22.<\/p>\n
Matthijs de Ligt is following a different recovery path after back surgery in May, with the centre-back still working back from a spell on the sidelines and expected to be available soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabriel joins United\u2019s squad, raising hopes of senior minutes before the new season begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083],"tags":[317],"class_list":["post-17963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963","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=17963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}