Erik ten Hag refused to be drawn on the latest news surrounding Jadon Sancho.
The Manchester United manager was asked about the winger at his latest press conference amid huge questions over his future.
Sancho hasn’t featured for United since August as he attacked his coach on social media after being omitted from the squad for a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.
The most recent development on the fiasco has seen the £73million signing from Borussia Dortmund not included in the team’s squad photo for the 2023/24 season.
Asked to comment on the situation, Ten Hag replied: “Everything has been said about him.”
Focus has again shifted towards Sancho after a story in The Times reported that he has been exiled from the first team due to his bust-up with Ten Hag.
The conflict occurred on September 3 when Ten Hag told the media: “Jadon, on his performance in training, was not selected.”
Sancho bit back in a since-deleted social media post, calling the comments ‘completely untrue’.
There were showdown talks between the manager and player, and talkSPORT understands that an apology could bring Sancho back into the first team.
Marcus Rashford has also been urging his fellow England international to do so, but Sancho is yet to swallow his pride.
That has led to increased transfer speculation over the 23-year-old, who has been linked with a return to Dortmund in January.
Manchester United could have fielded a starting team with 11 players who were unavailable for selection at this time last month.
Antony and Jadon Sancho have been unavailable for off-field reasons this season, but the other nine players in that starting XI, which included Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, were all sidelined with injuries.
The squad has been beset by injury concerns and although there’s now light at the end of the tunnel with some key personnel having returned to fitness, the crisis has highlighted how Erik ten Hag deals with injuries.
The club have been relatively secretive about injuries during Ten Hag’s reign and that’s because he’s understood to consider them medically confidential, meaning only the player can decide whether to reveal what injury they have.
Ten Hag is regularly pressed on the matter by journalists in press conferences at Carrington but he remains tight-lipped. His answers are consistently succinct and he tends to give as little information as possible about an injury.
Any fan who watches each press conference would have noticed this deliberate approach and the perfect example came before Nottingham Forest when Ten Hag was asked about injuries to Luke Shaw and Mason Mount.
Unsurprisingly, Ten Hag was asked whether he could put a timescale on the players’ injuries and he replied: “We can’t do that, it’s personal these days, they will be for some period absent where Luke will be longer than Mason.”
Ten Hag describing injuries as ‘personal’ was telling and the approach is also believed to be used to keep the information privy from the opposition; with it thought detailed injury updates could give an edge to opponents.
The cloud of secrecy around injuries, which has been more pronounced in the last few months because of the injury crisis, has been by design, but supporters are becoming increasingly frustrated at not knowing what issue a player is sidelined with.
Tyrell Malacia last played for United against Fulham on the final day of last season and he was absent throughout the entirety of pre-season due to his injury, meaning he’s been unavailable for around four months.
Although there have been questions asked about Malacia in press conferences, Ten Hag has kept his cards close to his chest and it was left to the Manchester Evening News to finally reveal why he’d been absent this week.
Not giving sufficient updates on why a player is absent, especially a long-term absentee like Malacia, only generates more interest and it causes some to falsely speculate, which is unhealthy and against the interest of the club.
As it happened, Malacia has been absent because he’s recovering from surgery after a knee injury. The left-back sustained the injury last season and the club initially looked to manage it with pain injections, but surgery was eventually required.
It’s understood the player was on crutches after the injury and he spent some time in the Netherlands to recover. He’s now back in Manchester and sources have indicated he’s expected to return before the New Year.
The club not disclosing Malacia had an operation has understandably irked some supporters. That information would have been enough to explain his absence and it seems highly unlikely the player would have objected.
It’s possible Malacia could be available for selection as early as November and his return will be a huge boost considering Shaw, another with an unspecified injury, is sidelined and Sergio Reguilon has also picked up a problem.
Ten Hag is not the only manager in the Premier League to operate with secrecy. Mikel Arteta appears to be deliberately awkward and Eddie Howe also gives little away, but the extent United withhold information is unique.
Some of the major injury updates this season, like with Malacia, Mount and Rasmus Hojlund, have been revealed by journalists when supporters want direct communication from the club, which isn’t an unreasonable demand.
The cloud of secrecy with injuries is unhelpful, yet it looks set to continue for now.
