The Red Devils have raised some eyebrows with their selection
Manchester United have left out four first team stars for their trip to
Oslo in a surprise squad being sent for pre-season.
The Red Devils kick off their preparation for the new campaign with
a game against Leeds United on Wednesday, before they travel to the
USA next week to take on Arsenal, Wrexham, Borussia Dortmund and
Real Madrid in a grueling pre-season campaign.
To that end, they named a 30 man squad to take to Norway, which included
newest addition Mason Mount, with the ex-Chelsea man in line to make his
debut against now-Championship side Leeds.
However, there were several big ommisions. Firstly, 15 players have not travelled
due to being on holiday following international commitments, including the likes
of Casemiro, Marcus Rashford and Christian Eriksen.
Perhaps more telling, however, were four players spotted at Carrington that were
ommitted. None of Dean Henderson, Antony, Anthony Martial or midfielder
Donny van De Beek made the trip, despite the quartet being among the few senior
players currently back at the club.
Antony is likely to be what Manchester United meant by ‘a number of players
are continuing their individual training programmes at Carrington’, with the
Brazilian suffering an ankle injury at the end of last season and seemingly not
yet fully recovered.
Meanwhile, Van de Beek and Henderson are both deemed surplus to requirements
this summer, with Henderson reportedly set to complete a £30m move to Nottingham
Forest ahead of the new season and Van de Beek thought to be free to leave should a
suitable offer come in, ending his nightmare spell at Old Trafford.
Question marks continue to swirl around Martial, who has a poor injury record and has
struggled to find a regular spot in Erik ten Hag’s side as a result. The 27-year-old made
just 11 Premier League starts last season and there is a feeling that he could be moved
on for the right price and should the club be able to find a replacement.
