Shaw opens up on recent injury issues

Saturday 16 October 2021 07:00

Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has opened up on how he has been coping with injury over recent weeks.

Our left-back was forced off during the first half of the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa at Old Trafford and did not feature in the game with Villarreal four days later.

While he did return to play the full 90 minutes against Everton and did the same in England’s 1-1 draw with Hungary, Shaw has been training less in order to manage the issue.

However, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Leicester, Luke – who has started all but two of United’s last 25 league games – insisted that those full appearances against the Toffees and Hungary have helped and that he’s raring to go ahead of a run of tough fixtures for the Reds.

“I’m feeling much better now than I did in the last few weeks,” Shaw told club media.

“To be honest, I hadn’t really trained at all. Leading up to the game against Villa, obviously I was ill and I had to come off then.

“Leading up through the week I didn’t even train to be honest. That was a bit of a struggle because I didn’t feel 100 per cent fit but like I said, whatever the team needs, if they need me I’ll always make myself available.

“With England I didn’t really train much either there to be honest but I managed to get another game in but I’m feeling much better now and hopefully I’m feeling much more fresher than I definitely have in the past month.”

Shaw enjoyed his best campaign for United in 2020/21 and was deservedly named in the PFA Team of the Year.

He carried that form into the European Championships, playing six of the seven games and scoring the Three Lions’ opening goal in the final with Italy.

However, Luke came close to missing the tournament through injury, after rupturing wrist ligaments in May’s Europa League final and he was also in the wars during the summer competition, picking up a rib problem through a clash with Scotland’s Lyndon Dykes.

The former Southampton defender is still wearing strapping as an after-effect of the issues, but he hopes to be rid of it soon.

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“To be fair I’ve been quite patched up over the last month,” our no.23 continued.

“Like I said, my whole left side has been patched up but it’s gradually getting better.

“I still need it [the strapping] now but things are obviously getting better so hopefully I'll get rid of it soon. I don’t think I’ll be doing a Jamie Vardy and having to wear it all the time!”

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