Luke Shaw is back for Saturday’s pre-season friendly agents Aston Villa.
The Manchester United left-back missed the final seven games of the 2019-20 season after sustaining an injury against his former club Southampton.
It was an ankle problem that kept Shaw sidelined but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed he is impressing in training and will play a part at Villa Park.
The Red Devils were given an extra week of preparation as the Premier League kicks off this weekend — due to involvement in the latter stages of the Europa League.
Solskjaer had another positive update on Axel Tuanzebe but Saturday’s game comes too soon for the young centre-back.
“For me, Luke is looking really good in training. He has come back, looking strong, and will play in the friendly against Villa,” Solskjaer told ManUtd.com.
“Then Axel [Tuanzebe] is getting closer as well. In a few weeks’ time, I guess he will be with us training full-time and hopefully we’ll be able to give him games quickly.”
Solskjaer needs to plan out tomorrow’s friendly and ensure that he gets the balance right between game-time and saving players for competitive games.
People will expect further improvements from his second full season in charge of the team. And he needs to build on last season’s third place finish because United shouldn’t go into the final week of the season not knowing if they’ve got top four secured.
This season it would be great to see the lads mount some sort of title challenge. Be there or thereabouts.
“It’s going to be a game to give players minutes,” Solskjaer added. “Some have trained more than others and some will be more ready than others. Some played International games, which actually sometimes you think you don’t really want that but some of them have got valuable minutes there.
“We’ll give the others minutes against Villa so they can all start on a decent level because it’s going to be a long season.”
United were also handed the boost of Paul Pogba returning to training after recovering from coronavirus.
Read more: Paul Pogba returns to Man United training as he recovers from coronavirus
good news