A big blow for MUFC.
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00:00 I'm here with Michael Plante of Manchester World on our weekly Manchester Catch-Up.
00:05 Michael, let's start with Manchester United.
00:08 Obviously, Martínez, a player who came back into the side and has really sort of changed that solid solidarity and defence,
00:17 and offers a lot more in terms of passing through into the midfield, feeding the likes of Bruno Fernandes to start counter-attacks, for example.
00:26 I mean, he's now out with an injury. What's the latest you can tell us, and what impact will that have on Ten Hag's current side?
00:35 Yeah, it's a big blow for United because, obviously, he's been out for the majority of the season so far.
00:40 I think he missed 18 games without foot injury.
00:43 Obviously, injured his foot at Brookes Metatarsal against Sevilla in April.
00:47 Came back from that, but still was feeling complications with it, so had to go and require surgery again.
00:53 So, he's been out. He was out from September to January.
00:57 Kind of came back into the team and started the last two Premier League matches.
01:01 Obviously, United won both of those. They're starting to build a little bit of momentum.
01:05 I think Martínez is crucial to the way they want to build up from the back.
01:08 They just look so much more confident with him on the ball.
01:11 He's obviously a fantastic defender as well.
01:13 And so, you're thinking, from a United perspective, happy days, fantastic.
01:17 This is all starting to build up and look a lot brighter and more optimistic.
01:21 And then, of course, a completely separate injury, picking up that knee injury against West Ham.
01:26 It's really innocuous moment because Soufhal fell on him.
01:30 And I think everyone thought he was play-acting.
01:33 Certainly, all the West Ham fans did, and I have to be honest, at the time, I did as well.
01:36 But then he came back on, tried to continue and couldn't.
01:39 And he's now, I can't remember the exact phrase, I think it was his medial ligament or something like that.
01:46 But he's hurt his knee. That's the easy way of putting it.
01:51 And he's going to be out for at least eight weeks, which kind of brings us into April.
01:57 That's a big blow for United.
01:59 And as I say, and also Ten Hag, he likes to have his two centre-backs, one right footer, one left footer.
02:05 I mean, he's got four other centre-backs, all four of whom are right-footed.
02:09 And, you know, it's a big talking point earlier this season about the fact he didn't like Varane in that left slot.
02:13 And he didn't like Varane and Maguire together.
02:16 He's even played Luke Shaw at left-back at times to get a right-footed and a left-footer.
02:19 So, yeah, it's a big blow for United.
02:21 I do think that now they've got the options and the players back, I mean,
02:25 they've got all the other four centre-backs fit and available.
02:27 So you would hope from their perspective that they should be OK to soldier on.
02:30 And they don't actually have too many injuries now in general, which they did obviously in the earlier part of the season.
02:34 But at the same time, it is quite a significant blow for United.