Manchester United have been given a timely lift with Matthijs de Ligt back in first-team training, a sign that his eight-month spell on the sidelines is edging toward a conclusion.<\/p>\n
The defender joined the squad for the first time on this leg of the club\u2019s summer tour of northern Europe, which has already included stops in Finland, Norway and Sweden before the move to the Republic of Ireland. On Monday, he took part in the opening 15 minutes of training at a facility in Co. Kildare, after which he returned to his individual programme as the rest of the group stepped up the intensity.<\/p>\n
That does not mean a match return is imminent, but it is still an encouraging stage in his recovery. With the 2026-27 Premier League campaign due to begin in just under two weeks, every player is now back with the squad in Ireland.<\/p>\n
That includes those who had been away on post-World Cup breaks, along with De Ligt, Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko, and new goalkeeper Karl Darlow, all of whom were working at Carrington. JJ Gabriel has also rejoined the group after a brief spell away from the travelling party, while new winger Tynan Thompson has earned his first opportunity around the senior squad. The 18-year-old arrived from Tottenham Hotspur with the hope of making a similar impression to Ayden Heaven, who moved from Arsenal in 2025.<\/p>\n
Matheus Cunha and Senne Lammens are back after illness kept them out of the trip to Gothenburg for the PSG match. Kobbie Mainoo and Marcus Rashford trained on Monday after their time with England until the World Cup\u2019s final weekend, and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez arrived later that evening.<\/p>\n
How Carrick shapes his defence for the opening weekend may depend on Mart\u00ednez\u2019s condition. Manchester United travel east across England to face Hull City on Aug. 22, and Mart\u00ednez remains the club\u2019s best left center back when fully fit, though he will have had limited time to rebuild after a delayed summer break.<\/p>\n
That could open the door for Heaven alongside Harry Maguire. De Ligt, once fully ready, is expected to compete directly with Maguire for the right-sided role, with Leny Yoro also an option on that side because of his right foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
De Ligt\u2019s return to training gives Manchester United a late preseason boost before the league starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[242,180,1980],"class_list":["post-18411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-pre-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411","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=18411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}