February 08, (THEWILL) – Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag, has defended his choice to allow defender, Lisandro Martinez, to continue playing after sustaining a knee injury last week. The Argentine international has now been ruled out for two months.
The incident occurred during United’s 3-0 English Premier League victory over West Ham last Sunday. Martinez struggled to play through the injury but was eventually substituted with 19 minutes of the match left. Ten Hag initially opted against substituting the centre-back to avoid disrupting his backline.
Scans later confirmed Martinez had suffered knee ligament damage. It has now been announced he will miss around eight weeks of action – a major blow to Ten Hag’s squad. However, speaking in a press conference on Thursday, the Dutch tactician stood by his decision. He claimed he had no idea the injury was so serious at the time.
“I didn’t know it was that bad. He was able to continue playing on it. If we had known it was so severe, of course, we would have taken him off immediately,” Ten Hag stated. He will now have to cope without Martinez over the coming months in what could be a pivotal stage of United’s season.
The Red Devils are battling on three fronts as they seek to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League. Losing a key starter like Martinez will significantly hamper those hopes. Ten Hag will be hoping he has no regrets about allowing him to play through pain last Sunday.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
