Marseille and Monaco are set to offer Anthony Martial a return to Ligue 1 in the summer | OneFootball

Anthony Martial might be set to return to his homeland as his time at Manchester United appears to be drawing to an end.

This is according to The Sun, who report that “Martial is set to be offered the chance to return home to France when his Manchester United contract expires this summer”.

“Former club Monaco and Marseille are among those showing interest in the 28-year-old forward, currently out injured”.

Martial began his career with Monaco and it was from the principality club that United signed him.

The much-maligned attacker has not played for the club since the ninth of December and he has been ruled out of action for up to 10 weeks with a groin injury.

It has reportedly already been decided that Martial and United will not negotiate a new deal, despite comments by Erik ten Hag that talks were ongoing.

It was thought that the player might make a move in January but news of his injury soon put paid to these reports.

The striker, who has been at United since 2015, has been linked to many clubs, with no deal ever materialising.

It was reported that Saudi Arabian team, Al-Ettifaq, could have made a move for the Frenchman in January but no such deal occurred.

It was then the turn of Inter Milan to be linked to the forgotten striker, and the Serie A table toppers were credited with an interest in bringing in the French international.

There were also rumours that Martial’s agent had made a trip to Turkey to sort out a winter deal with one of the Istanbul giants, Fenerbahce or Galatasaray but once again, no move materialised.

Martial’s situation is reminiscent of those of Jesse Lingard and David de Gea, who both left the club after their highly lucrative contracts expired and struggled to find a new home in keeping with their level of football and salary expectations.

Logic suggests the Frenchman will almost certainly have to slash his £250,000-a-week salary by half or more if he is to find a new home in top football. Marseille’s top earner, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is on approximately £137,000 a week and Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder is on £127,000 per week (salary information from capology.com).

Meanwhile, with Martial unlikely to make a return to April at the earliest, some wonder if he will ever play again for the Red Devils.