Manchester United have been handed a more encouraging reading on Lisandro Mart\u00ednez after his latest injury scare, with the defender\u2019s situation not thought to be severe.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez was forced off in the first half of the World Cup final, and the sight of the Argentina left-footed centre back leaving the pitch naturally triggered concern in Manchester. His central defensive partner Cristian Romero also went off injured after both had spent much of the match resisting Spanish pressure.<\/p>\n
Although the final finished badly for Argentina, Mart\u00ednez still had reason for recognition. He was later included in FIFA\u2019s Dream XI, a nod to the strength of his individual tournament.<\/p>\n
The issue is understood to involve his thigh, which at least places it apart from the long-running problems that have interrupted his United career. Since arriving at Old Trafford, Mart\u00ednez has missed sizeable spells with foot, knee and calf injuries. His first season was ended early by a fractured metatarsal, while injuries kept him out of 41 matches in 2023-24. In 2025, a torn ACL sidelined him for more than nine months and even prompted thoughts of early retirement.<\/p>\n
Muscle problems have continued to affect his recovery from that knee injury, but the present hamstring concern does not appear to be a major one. United are said to be relaxed, and Andy Mitten understands the club believe Mart\u00ednez can be fit for the opening weekend of the 2026\/27 Premier League season. The Red Devils travel to newly promoted Hull City on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n
United have not yet added a defender in the summer transfer window, with Michael Carrick expected to trust the options already available to him. He will also hope Matthijs de Ligt can return soon, though the Dutchman still has a way to go before full fitness.<\/p>\n
De Ligt\u2019s recovery from his \u201ccomplicated\u201d back injury is expected to take almost a year. His last appearance for United came in a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Nov. 30, 2025, when Ruben Amorim was still in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United expect Mart\u00ednez to be fit for the 2026\/27 opener after the World Cup final injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1073,1683],"class_list":["post-18065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-acl-injury","tag-back-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065","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=18065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}