The Tyrell Malacia question is finally answered- How a bad storm of events ruled him out for a year | OneFootball

Manchester United have suffered many injuries this season and that is a way of putting their situation politely.

However, perhaps no other player has been as absent as Tyrell Malacia which is difficult to do as he is set to miss the whole season.

Worse still, there have been no clear updates and the timeline for his return has kept shifting much to the chagrin of fans as United keep playing with no natural left-backs.

Until now. The Athletic have reported the specifics of Malacia’s injury and the reasons behind the continued delay.

Needless to say, they don’t reflect well on either party- the club or the player himself.

The report states that the first instance of pain in Malacia’s knee happened last year but instead of being cautious, he continued to take part, even playing the full 90 on the final matchday of the league.

This reminds of players like Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez being rushed back only for them to be sidelined for much longer.

In Malacia’s case, however, the problem increased to such an extent that he had to be shut down for pre-season, which is where the second issue arose.

Instead of going under the knife with United’s experts, Malacia chose to have surgery with his personal surgeon, a damning indictment on United’s staff.

To add to the farce, Malacia didn’t even contact the club regularly during this period and there were no regular updates on his progress.

Pieces of cartilage remained around his knee and the decision was taken to have a corrective surgery, thankfully, under United’s oversight this time but still conducted by Malacia’s surgeon.

After this second surgery, Malacia finally returned to Carrington to begin a long and arduous rehab process which is where the next, and perhaps the most shocking issue arose.

Stretched by injuries to the first-team players, the report states that Malacia couldn’t be given enough time and attention as he was lower on the list of priorities since Ten Hag needed more immediate injuries to be healed first.

He participated in rehab only four days a week as the other three were taken up by other players or staff who had days off.

Effectively, a club the size of Manchester United functioned like a local GP who had too many patients, a remarkable fact that Sir Jim Ratcliffe will need to take cognisance of.

Fortunately, after the whole farce, it is expected that Malacia’s recovery is finally on track albeit slow. He is expected to return directly in the pre-season but it is impossible to not think what could have been if all parties had been professional throughout the process.

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