Manchester United will have to wait for the return of Luke Shaw as the left-back has suffered a fresh setback in his recovery from a long-term calf injury, Afrosport reports.
Shaw missed the last three months of the 2023-24 season with a torn hamstring and has not played for United since February, making it over 250 days since he last featured for the club.
🚨⛔️ Luke Shaw has suffered a setback as he’s not ready to return yet, it was confirmed by Erik ten Hag in his post-West Ham press conference.
No Shaw available for van Nistelrooy now, as @samuelluckhurst reports. pic.twitter.com/37armEeMvp
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 29, 2024
The 29-year-old, who was initially expected to miss last summer’s European Championship, recovered in time to feature for England at the tournament in Germany, where he started their 2-1 defeat to Spain in the final.
The England international, however, picked up a calf strain ahead of the current Premier League campaign, and has failed to return to action having missed both the September and October international breaks deadline.
Former United manager Erik ten Hag, who was relieved of his duties on Monday after their 2-1 defeat at West Ham, revealed in his final post-match conference that Shaw had suffered a setback and will need more time to return.
“The process is not going as we expected, that’s the truth,” the Dutchman told Sky Sports
“The setback, if you want to call it like this, but we want to do it very careful because when he is now dropping again we have made the wrong process.
“So we want to be very careful. We know his past. We have to do this right because we want him to be available because he will have a big impact on our performances and also on our levels.
“We can’t have it that he is playing for some games and then drops out again. So we do it very careful.”
Shaw’s time at United has been plagued by injuries with the most memorable being a double fracture he suffered in his debut season at the club when they played PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.
United are up against Leicester City at old Trafford in the EFL Cup round of 16 on Wednesday, and the club currently has seven players out through injury ahead of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first game in charge as interim coach.
