Man Utd trained at Carrington on Friday as they prepare for the return of Premier League action after the international break.
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Chido Obi continues to train with the first-team but could feature in the FA Youth Cup on Monday night
(Image: 2025 Alex Livesey - Danehouse)
Ruben Amorim and his coaching staff put the Manchester United players through their paces on Friday as preparations began for the return of Premier League football on Tuesday.
United's players have returned to Carrington from representing their countries across the world on the international stage and are now getting ready for the run-in, with nine Premier League games to go. It is the Europa League where United's focus will be and they face Lyon in the quarter-finals in April.
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Having been dumped out of the FA Cup by Fulham it is a second successive weekend without a game, but United return to action on Tuesday when they have a tricky trip to the City Ground to face this season's surprise package Nottingham Forest.
The injury issues that have struck down the squad in recent weeks and this is what we spotted from the footage of the training session made available on Friday.
Spirits are high
United training sessions will begin with a 'tunnel of death' - as Wes Brown called it on MUTV - when players are returning from injury lay-offs or have something to celebrate, and Friday was a busy one.
Luke Shaw, Leny Yoro and Harry Maguire all marked their return to training with a dash through the tunnel as their teammates playfully tried to slap them on their head. Harry Amass also went through that run having celebrated his 18th birthday on the day of his first-team debut against Leicester City before the international break.
Then, Chido Obi and Matthijs de Ligt had to run the gauntlet as well. Captain Bruno Fernandes was joking around with De Ligt as he pushed him to the front of the queue and spirits were clearly high at the start of the session. Obi went through after making his Denmark Under-21 debut during the international break and De Ligt brought up his 50th cap for the Netherlands.
Maguire hits the floor
The training session was only a couple of minutes old when one of the returning trio hit the deck again. Thankfully it wasn't Shaw, whose return will be managed carefully after a rotten year of injuries, but Maguire.
It was also nothing to do with his fitness. A warm-up rondo in tight spaces tested the touch of every player and offer limited space and Maguire went down as he tried to win the ball.
He was quickly back on his feet and shared a laugh and a joke with Mason Mount, who also knows a thing or two about fitness issues and false starts when it comes to making a return.
Youth gets a chance
There have been plenty of United youngsters on the bench recently as the injury crisis has bitten but there was three involved on Friday who are yet to experience a matchday squad.
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Godwill Kukonki has had a taste of action and the 17-year-old has been a regular in first-team training this season, keeping his place on Friday despite the return of Maguire, Shaw and Yoro. He was joined by 18-year-old defender Reece Munro, who is yet to make a matchday squad.
There was also a chance for exciting midfielder Jim Thwaites, 17, and for attacker Bendito Mantato, also 17., as they got a taste of senior training at Carrington.
With Amass and Obi also included in the session there were six players who have featured in the run to the FA Youth Cup semi-final in first-team training. A decision will have to be made on which of them can feature in that semi-final at Villa Park on Monday and who is involved in the first-team fixture against Nottingham Forest 24 hours later.