Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r has identified an early medical setback that he believes hindered Jadon Sancho\u2019s time at Manchester United. Speaking on Sky Sports\u2019 The Overlap, Solskj\u00e6r recalled his initial optimism about the signing and the specific attributes he expected the winger to bring. He said Sancho could offer “something different in the final third.” <\/p>\n
The signing was viewed as a potential solution to United\u2019s need for players who could unlock defences. “We wanted players who could break teams down, and Jadon, with his skill, link-up play, and little passes around the box, gave us that,” Solskj\u00e6r said. Those qualities, the manager added, were part of the reason for the early excitement around the transfer.<\/p>\n
Solskj\u00e6r then revealed that Sancho suffered an ear infection soon after joining the club. “He was unlucky through. Before he joined, he went on holiday, as you do, and ended up getting an ear infection. He was in the hospital, and really struggled for his first ten days or so before he could even start training with us. That hasn’t previously come out before. I never really got to play with him properly, because by the time he was finding form again, I was already on my way out.” <\/p>\n
Sancho\u2019s career at Old Trafford later stalled. By the end of 2025\u201326 he would have spent the previous two-and-a-half seasons out on loan with Dortmund, Chelsea and, currently, Aston Villa. He has not appeared in a Premier League match for Manchester United since August 2023 and is unlikely to represent the club again. In 83 appearances for United he scored 12 times and registered six assists.<\/p>\n
A significant fallout with Erik ten Hag has been cited as a factor in Sancho\u2019s decline at the club. Sancho had featured off the bench in United\u2019s first two games of the 2021\u201322 season and did not score his first Manchester United goal until after Solskj\u00e6r was dismissed following the 4-1 defeat at Watford in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Solskjaer says an ear infection delayed Jadon Sancho’s United debut and affected his early progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,179],"tags":[1081,1215,1019],"class_list":["post-4463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-manchester-united","tag-adaptation","tag-controversy","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463","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=4463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}